Between 1944 and 1956, 8 million returning veterans received-debt-free education, low-interest mortgages or small-business loans. The GI Bill helped assimilate those young men into a new post-war society and helped turn America into a middle-class nation. This large and noble effort by our government was based on their heroic service to our country. After 9/11, Americans were hungry to serve and to make some sacrifice on behalf of a larger cause. But they were only asked to go shopping by our president. But the reason private volunteerism is so high is precisely that confidence in our public institutions is so low.
When Americans look around right now, they see a public school system with 38 percent of fourth graders unable to read at a basic level. They see the cost of health care escalating as 47 million people go uninsured. They see a government that responded ineptly to a hurricane in New Orleans. They see our military being hollowed out by our leaders who have sent them back to Iraq and Afghanistan on multiple tours.
Today, we need a new GI bill for national service involving men and women, young and old, to help secure America for the future and turn every new generation into a Greatest Generation.
The next president will have an opportunity to create a program for national service. It can be based on the simple, but compelling idea that devoting a year or more to national service, whether military or civilian, should become a countrywide rite of passage, and the common expectation and widespread experience of virtually every young American.
The plan would be voluntary, not mandatory, and it would be based on carrots, not sticks. Here are a few ideas to consider:
- Create a National Service Baby Bond. Every time an America baby is born, the federal government would invest $500in that child's name in a 529-type fund — the kind many Americans are using for college savings. At a rate of return of 7 percent — the historic return on equities — that money would total roughly $19,000 by the time that baby reaches 20. That money could be accessed between the ages of 18 and 25 on one condition: that he or she commits to at least one year of national or military service. Like the old GI Bill, the money must be used to fund education, start a business or make a down payment on a home.
- Expand AmeriCorps and the National Senior Volunteer Corps. Since 1994, 500,000 people have gone through AmeriCorps programs tutoring and teaching in urban areas, managing after-school programs, cleaning up playgrounds and caring for the elderly. AmeriCorps members earn a small stipend for their volunteering and receive education awards up to $4,725 a year. We should increase the size of AmeriCorps from 75,000 members each year to 250,000.
- Prohibit elite colleges From barring ROTC from recruiting on campus. At a time when we are confronting radical Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan and Iraq, we need to make military service a viable option for anyone who wants and is qualified to serve. After six years of fighting on two different battlefields, and stretching the resources and personnel of the American military almost to the breaking point, the Pentagon is estimating that we need 100,000 additional troops to meet our national security needs around the globe. It is unacceptable that some of the nation's most elite colleges now deny ROTC from recruiting on their campuses. It is time that these colleges practice what they preach when it comes to the First Amendment. Just recently, Columbia University allowed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran to speak on campus, but it doesn't allow military ROTC to recruit on campus. This must stop. The GI Bill was just expanded and passed the congress. It provides significant educational benefits for those who serve in our nation's armed forces. Patriotism and love of country involves all service, including military service.
- Create an Education Corps. We need to create a corps of teachers, tutors and volunteers who can help the 38 percent of fourth-graders who can't read at a basic level. These people could also lead after-school programs for the 14 million students — a quarter of all school-age kids — who do not have a supervised activity between 3 and 6 p.m. on school days. Studies show that students who spend no time in after-school programs are 50 percent more likely to use drugs and 37 percent more likely to become teen parents. The Corps members would also focus on curbing America's dropout epidemic. Right now, 50 percent of the dropouts come from 15 percent of the nation's high schools, most of them located in urban neighborhoods with high rates of poverty.
The courageous men who signed the Declaration of Independence pledged "our Lives, our fortunes and our sacred Honor." The least we can do to carry on the Founders' service and that of so many others after them is to pledge our time in pursuit of the common good.
Source: Tennessean
