THE BATTLE OF IDEAS

Candidate: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)

Proposal: A national public service academy

Think West Point or Annapolis, with mandatory community service in place of rifle drill and course loads heavier on civics than Clausewitz. Students attending the academy would receive a free four-year undergraduate education in return for agreeing to spend five years after graduation working for federal, state or local government.

Clinton believes in the idea, she said at last week's Democratic debate in Charleston, S.C., "because we've got to get young people back into public service." She returned to it in a speech to College Democrats on Saturday, saying: "I'm going to be asking a new generation to serve. . . . Just like our military academies, we need to give a totally all-paid education to young men and women who will serve their country in a public service position."

The idea is the brainchild of a pair of former Teach for America volunteers, Chris Myers Asch and Shawn Raymond, who were moved to action by the anemic government response to Hurricane Katrina. Too many young people interested in public service, they say, are being lured into the private sector because it pays better or to nonprofit groups because they seem more dynamic than government.

"We need an institution that systematically develops leadership . . . and in doing so would send a powerful message about the importance we attach to public service," Asch said. "We need to elevate it in the eyes of young people so we can attract the best and brightest and raise the prestige of the field as a whole."

The idea is not entirely new -- George Washington proposed a national university, and a commission on public service proposed a similar academy in the 1980s. There are analogues abroad, such as France's elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration, the gateway to top government jobs.

Asch said Clinton had her staff contact him after reading about his effort last year. She is now a co-sponsor of legislation that would allocate $164 million per year for the 5,000-student academy. About 12 senators and 60 representatives have signed on, though there are plenty of skeptics who question whether the academy is needed.

Asch is eyeing the soon-to-be-vacated Walter Reed Army Medical Center in the District as a site, which would save on construction costs and put students near experienced instructors and internship possibilities.

Students in the academy would major in traditional subjects, from English to biology, while taking required courses in history, government and economics and a foreign language they would have to master. They would also participate in a "systematic leadership development program" combining course work and community service and would be required to spend a semester abroad.

In the summer after their freshman year, they would have to spend eight weeks with an emergency response team. And in their second summer, eight weeks in a "military service internship." So as not to discourage anyone, the latter stint would "not necessarily include the physical training often associated with military service," the plan says.

Which leaves a question: What would be the academy's equivalent to the grueling regimens of first-year students at the military academies? Collating GAO reports? Powerlifting the federal budget?

-- Alec MacGillis