National Service Solves Everything.

AuthorEdelman, Gilad
PositionEditor's Note - Editorial

It's midsummer in Washington. Sweat gathers under suit jackets. Electric scooters clog the sidewalks. And presidential campaigns get serious about firming up policy positions before the primary season gets into full swing. As is our wont, we offer a few ideas in this issue: Daniel Block sketches a blueprint for a sweeping, progressive trade pact with Europe; Grace Gedye explores the latent political potential of tackling the long-term elder care crisis; and Kevin Carey lays out an innovative vision for establishing a national consortium of zero-tuition colleges.

Another policy idea bouncing quietly around this cycle is an evergreen: expanding national service. Several presidential hopefuls, most notably Pete Buttigieg, have publicly discussed it. As well they should. Voters don't just want stuff; they want opportunities to contribute to society, and not necessarily through the military. This insight guided John F. Kennedy when he established the Peace Corps; Bill Clinton when he created its domestic counterpart, AmeriCorps; and Barack Obama when he signed legislation designed to more than triple the number of AmeriCorps slots. (Unfortunately, the law required Congress to approve annual spending increases, which went pretty much how you'd imagine. Today, the program still only deploys about 75,000 members per year.)

Today, in an era of vicious partisanship, the need to rebuild a real sense of national identity is especially urgent. Yet, oddly, politicians may not be thinking opportunistically enough about national service. It has become a far better idea than most people in politics seem to realize, because, done properly, it represents an elegant way to execute two extremely buzzy but decidedly half-baked policy goals in liberal circles: free college and a federal jobs guarantee.

Ever since Bernie Sanders ran it up the flagpole in 2015, the notion that the federal government should eliminate tuition at all public universities has been both left-wing orthodoxy and a policy headache. As Kevin Carey explains, the Sanders approach perversely rewards the states that now provide the least support for higher education while punishing the ones that provide the most. (See "A Lesson on Free College for Sanders and Warren," page 27.) It isn't even all that popular beyond the Democratic base. A recent Quinnipiac poll found 52 percent of registered voters opposed, the latest of several similar results.

But if we turn "free college" into "free college if...

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