NCoC: Could a Down Market Actually Help Uplift America?

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Could a Down Market Actually Help Uplift America?

Public service pays dividends

February 24, 2009

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Christopher Gergen and GreggVanourekTo give some local context, D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee is a TFA alum ('92), as is Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson ('92) and education advisers Jason Kamras ('96, also a National Teacher of the Year) and Abigail Smith ('92). Sekou Biddle ('93) is on the D.C. School Board, and more than 10 percent of the city's public schools are run by TFA alumni.

In a recent Washington Times Op Ed, leadership Entrepreneurs Christopher Gergen and Gregg Vanourek say that investing in service as part of an economic stimulus package could have a far reaching and positive ripple effect by bolstering communities, advancing education and developing future leaders.

Here’s an except:

A bipartisan group led by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican, is seeking to increase AmeriCorps to 250,000 members. The increase would cost $5 billion over five years (less than 1 percent of the colossal stimulus bill) and create 8 percent of the total number of new jobs sought by the Obama administration.

These new jobs would help get the underemployed (primarily young people) working in communities badly hit by the recession. They also would help those youths pay for college, the cost of which has been getting increasingly out of reach as tuition increases have surpassed inflation for years.

We want to hear what you have to say about this thought provoking article. In what other ways might investing in service or other forms of civic engagement now, have a lasting effect? We invite you to read more and leave your observations.

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