Toward a National Service Program

Or: How to eliminate Student Debt, unemployment, and the Budget Deficit in one fell swoop

I read an op-ed from the Al Jazeera online today about the loss of 6.3 Trillion dollars from the wealth of the US due to the lost income caused by the ultra wealthy hording their money after the major tax cuts of the last decade (I’m hesitant to identify them with George W. Bush, because Democrats were complicit in their passage as well.)

This article returned my mind to a what I think is a rather sensible program for eliminating unemployment, paying off the national debt, and strengthening the hands of workers by both providing people with an opportunity to go to school and not carry a massive debt into their forties, giving them a semi-marketable skill, and tightening up the slack in the labor market. The goal overall would be two-fold: This program would aim at empowering workers at the expense of employers who have not, for more than a dozen years, been ethical participants in their society (they want corporate citizenship, but refuse to accept any of the other responsibilities of citizenship) and secondly, to allow the US to train and educate its population while saving money in the process, cutting government outlays to private contractors and conducting their business in house.

The National Service Program will improve the minimum wage without the need for minimum wage legislation. It will strengthen the bargaining position of the worker without the need for interference of an entrenched and entitled union. It will help end the scourge of student loan debt twenty years ahead of current legislation, and will delay entry into the work force for millions of American graduates each year while providing them useful, and basic skills which will help them be more productive and disciplined as a workforce when they actually do enter. All in all, the number of people who are measurably hindered by this proposal will be infinitesimally small compared to the number of people who are helped directly and indirectly.

Why a National Service Program?

When I was in High School, I was impressed by a proposed plan by the then President Bill Clinton, which became known as Americorps. While Americorps did not live up to its touted benefits (few wide sweeping proposals that actually become law do), and instead became a forgotten program focused on only a segment of the population meeting only a fraction of the actual needs of the country (in only small segments of the immeasurably large education, public safety, health, and environmental sectors), the ideal of of a comprehensive national service program stuck with me.

The question I had at the time, and which still motivates this proposal, is this: “Why shouldn’t education, which benefits the society far more than it actually costs, be supported by society as far as possible? Why shouldn’t the society expect that in exchange for support through college, it gets something in return?” I thought then, and still think today that society has an interest in both seeing its youth as highly educated as it can make them, and demanding something in return for that support- some sort of service to the country, rather than simply self-service. If education of the youth is truly an investment, then why shouldn’t society invest with the aim of success as well as with an eye to the return on that investment?

As it is, once students graduate high school, society currently thinks that its obligation is at an end- and of course, it gets what it pays for, which is marginally educated students who, like many early 20-somethings, feel entitled to something which they are not in any way qualified to use. What becomes of the young person then is in theory, entirely up to him or herself, often to squander while searching for meaningless work which doesn’t utilize his or her training, but merely serves to allow the student to pay back debt for the next 25 years. That represents a failure of the implicit contract which is made before the student enters college: The young person is told to go to university, to get an education and a degree, and then implicitly promised, in return, job security and a nice retirement for himself and his family.

Except, as all students find out, it almost never works out like that. Instead, students come out of school with the same exact degree as millions of others who were told the same thing, and then, when they go to get the job that they were implicitly guaranteed, they find that not only are they competing with those same millions of other freshly minted college grads, but people who are older, have been in the workforce longer, and who have more experience. Consequently, they end up in trouble, because not only do they not have a job that pays them well enough to even live modestly, but they also have student loan bills which begin coming due almost immediately.

The net result for the society- A swath of the population which is willing to work for anything, if they can get a job, and if not, are a burden on society in other ways. Just when society thinks it should no longer have to carry these grown children who literally have no real job, no real experience, and no real skills, that is when those same people need the most help. The failure to live up to its part of the bargain earns the society the disillusionment and approbation by the students, who nonetheless still have to find a way to meet expenses.

The National Service Program I envision steps in before students get to this point. I will go into more detail below, but briefly, the program works like this:

A student graduates from High School, and has successfully applied to some university. We will see that if money is not an issue, the student will seek out the best school he or she can get into. From the beginning, a student will decide whether he or she will take public financing or private financing. If the student opts into the private financing route, they can still supplement their private financing with public money, under precisely the same terms as students who opt to go the full public route take, and there will be no prejudice or discrimination against any student. This is important- The program must be universal, that is, open to all, regardless of other funding sources.

Upon adopting the public financing route, the student signs a promissory note with the federal government. The deal would be essentially a “free ride” to college, including on-campus room and board, fees and books while the student remains enrolled. The student will also receive a small living stipend, which will not allow the student to make rent anywhere in the country, but which will cover expenses and so forth, and make working while pursuing a degree less attractive. The goal is to keep the student enrolled in school and not distracted by the drive to make money and etc.

The funding will cover one calendar year. If a student only is enrolled during the fall and spring semesters and chooses to take the summer off of school, whatever money would have been distributed to the school is distributed to the student. But because the terms of repayment of the loan is national service, the student would be advised to continue to take classes in the summer, to shorten the time he or she needs to be enrolled.

Following the end of the student’s education, whether it comes through graduation or through dropping out, the student will owe the number of years to the Federal Government in service of some sort. This can be through military service, which will be satisfied by a corresponding enlistment, or through a National Service Corps which is truly comprehensive, as opposed to the limited operations of programs like AmeriCorps. Then, when the terms of service is completed honorably, the student may opt to leave the service or may opt to remain in and make a career out of National Service like a person would make a career out of Military service. At any rate, whenever the term of service is completed, the student owes no money whatsoever to any lending agency, unless they unnecessarily supplemented their finances through some private institution. For four years of support, the student can work off the debt in four years, and then be completely debt free, with four years of work experience and a free hand in selecting his work.

Implementation of the NSP

To implement a program like this, some things would need to happen first:

First, all existing debt would need to be rescheduled. The US government is half way there (as it is in so many things)- Under Obama, the Stafford Loan program was nationalized. Essentially, what this means is that the government now more or less owns the loans. They COULD, if they wanted, forgive them, partially or completely. It would be a small thing to do; except it would mean that a trillion dollars of borrowed money would evaporate. Half of that, of course would be interest not paid, but that leaves 500 billion in unpaid principles that the Government would write off.

Well, we could bet that this wouldn’t happen. But it would be a decent step to move those who owe debt to a different sort of payment. There are currently a number of different repayment options to help prevent default. But this isn’t enough- what would be more helpful is to make student tuition and fees more affordable. Since we are sold this bill of goods and told we can’t get a job without a degree, but if we do get a degree, all of our “American Dreams” will come true, the least the government could do would be to ensure affordability. They could do this most directly by beginning to subsidize higher education once more. It would eliminate the need to take out loans for many people, and those who did take out loans would be able to pay it off more on the terms of a car note than a mortgage.

Other ways the government could make existing loans more affordable is to eliminate interest payments (something that Senator Elizabeth Warren recently proposed and Obama has been encouraged to support through executive action, but which was filibustered in the Senate), or to have more generous debt forgiveness programs which will attract more people. Finally, the US government could do more to promote the programs which are already on the books, making them an opt-out rather than an opt-in arrangement.

The Second Step is quite a bit more radical- The Government would have to set itself as the single payer of all college tuition for soon-to-be students. Briefly, this is essentially the same thing as a single payer system in health care. The Federal Government uses this program to guarantee all the opportunity to attend the best college they can get into. This turns college admissions into a true meritocracy, where money or background is no longer an issue, but only talent. I am convinced that the Government can fund the college education of every American student into perpetuity at a much cheaper rate than they will face through increasing defaults.

This actually has some benefits- having a single payer, the US Government can use its influence to negotiate lower prices. No longer will Universities have carte blanche to hire more and more administrators while increasing fees on students year after year. Instead, the single payer will be able to negotiate lower tuition prices for all. A student will have the option to fund their own education themselves, or with the help from their parents, but financing through regulated lending sources will end. I would be willing to bet that only a few students a year would be able to actually fund their education themselves, but as you can imagine, even they would benefit from lower rates negotiated by the Single Payer. Eventually schools may themselves balk at the uncertainty of private payments, and only accept payments from the National System.

Thirdly, then, the Government must demand repayment in terms of service. To do this, the Government has to take over various sectors of the economy that they currently farm out to private contractors. I happen to think that the use of private contractors, who charge the Government a premium for their service because they have to guarantee dividends for their investors, is one of the biggest sources of waste that our Government experiences. One 2012 study from CNN reported that 14% of the Federal Budget, meaning half a trillion dollars, is paid to private contractors, which is double of what it was in 2000. The trend is that this amount will continue to increase, not go the other way.

In 2013, it was reported that 70% of the Intelligence Budget is spent on Contractors, an interesting number considering the controversy surrounding one particular contractor, Edward Snowden. And in 2013 hearings, Senator Dick Durbin pointed out that “… the average contract employee costs two to three times as much as the average DOD civilian employee for performing similar work, [and that] contract employees comprised 22% of [DOD’s] workforce but accounted for 50% of its cost.” This is fairly typical of all institutions in the US Federal Government.

So, instead of farming these jobs out to private corporations, why not give these jobs to recent college graduates? If the average DoD contracted worker costs three times the average civilian worker, think of how much more the average contracted worker makes than the average enlistee! Students in a National Service program would be paid essentially on a stipend basis, though they would receive the same benefits as a military enlistee. So you can imagine how much money would be saved, without the reduction in services. There is no evidence, except an unsubstantiated ideological commitment to liberal economic dogma, to suggest that outcomes are better with the private as opposed to the public sector. Cancelling contracts and handing them to properly trained college graduates in a National Service program will likely improve outcomes- The NSP would be set up to match the aptitude strength of recent graduates with needed occupations, like the military currently matches aptitude with occupation subfield.

Once these three things happen, it would be very easy to build a national service program. Before continuing, of course, I should note that the probability of the US Government abandoning the private sector in any part of the economy has got to be very low. So, with the current attitude of the Government of the US against anything that smacks of both nationalization and efficiency, a National Service Program is almost entirely unlikely. But let’s pretend for a moment that one day the Government realized that it could solve the student loan crisis for million of Americans and actually lay the foundation for genuine prosperity for our society for the next hundred years. Let’s pretend that the Government took the incredibly unlikely step and instituted the National Service Program. What would this look like? How would it work?

The National Service Program

Step 1: Those who plan on receiving student subsidies to attend school sign up for the program. All are, by law, guaranteed the opportunity to participate in the system, regardless of their parents’ income. For many, this will become their first right as an adult, often occurring before they receive the right to vote. I should add that a person that enlists in some form of national service for 4 years, like enlistment in the military, will be entitled through the program to a college education following their service, requiring a slight overhaul in the GI Bill system, but this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Step 2: Once the funds are certified, the student applies for college. This process happens for millions of individuals every year already, so the only differences is that a whole range of options will be opened to students which were previously not even considered due to the financial burden they would have placed on students. The hypothesis here is that if cost is removed from calculations, students will attend the best school, whatever that means, that they can get into, rather than the one they can afford.

Meanwhile, since the Government is the single payer of college tuition, they can negotiate on a range of topics that they currently don’t have control of anymore, such as making schools more inclusive of students from various backgrounds, as well as forcing schools to hold the line on costs. Any school that takes money from the Federal Government, for any reason, will abide by the guidelines set by the Federal Government, and the reduced consumer base will force those who refuse to comply with Federal Guidelines to have to raise costs to the point where those schools are cost prohibitive for students. Remember- the goal here is to allow students to attend the best schools they can get into. The key to this is to deny school the opportunity to discriminate against students for any reason except academic standards.

Step 3: The Student attends school. A stipend is provided to students for board and other expenses, to make working while in classes less attractive to students. The student decides how long he or she will remain in school, knowing that each additional year of support will cause them to have to remain in National Service one more year.

Step 4: Whenever the Student is finished with school, either with or without a degree, they move directly into National Service, which is modeled, in terms of rank, discipline, pay and benefits on the idea of a conscript army, where they remain for however many years until their service commitment is completed. I should add that a student who can attend graduate school can at this point opt to roll the grad school into their subsidy, or may defer going to grad school until their first service obligation is fulfilled.

Before entering into the Service program, the aptitudes and relative degree of technical or academic skill is determined, either by looking at their transcripts or by administering a standardized test similar to the ASVAB currently administered to enlistees in the Armed Forces. Also, students have the option of entering into military service in lieu of National Service, for an enlistment term equaling their obligation to National Service. Aptitude combines with the needs of the Service Program to supply individuals to jobs in fields where they are both needed and where they stand a chance of doing something with the education they have received.

The single student lives in Barracks. Naturally, accommodations will be made for those who marry in college and have children- that is unavoidable, but those accommodations are also made for enlisted and commissioned members of the military as well. Those in the NSP who are married are given the option to serve with their spouse as a consideration of their placement.

The single student eats food at the messhall, with the same quality of food served to military members. In all ways except billet, military and civilian services are equivalent. The difference of billet has to do with the sort of jobs the student performs. All things that the US currently contracts civilian contractors to provide will be eligible for Student work. Those with more experience in various fields will naturally serve in NCO roles, as low level managers. Unit cohesion and discipline will be maintained. The Student will receive a salary, and will be expected to maintain uniforms. But civilian NSP students will never serve in a combat situation, nor will ever serve as auxiliaries to law enforcement or the military. Nor may they ever be drafted into the military during or after their time in the NSP.

Step 5: The Student performs National Service. This job can consist of any job the Nation needs done. It can include anything that the Federal Government currently contracts out to the private sector, or any that it currently hires civilians to perform. The job can include working on road and river clean up crews, it could involve blazing new roads in the wilderness, or improving existing natural areas. It could involve construction and maintenance of dams and electrical infrastructure. It could involve staffing paperwork and call centers. It could be web design, or services operation. It could involve social work like work in public health institutions or activity as a research assistant. Basically any wrk the Federal Government actually functionally does, or can create as part of the NSP, the Student will have his aptitudes matched to need and will perform.

The Student’s time in the NSP will begin with appropriate training. This starts with development of the concept of unit cohesion. The Student will be issued all appropriate uniforms as well as a training barracks, where they will learn the skills necessary to act as a unit, rather than as individuals. These skills will be essential to maintaining discipline later. The basic training will be a lot less rigorous than basic military training, where there is a much more violent purpose to developing discipline and unit cohesion. Task accomplishment and efficiency will be stressed in basic training. Physical fitness will be strongly stressed during this period- The goal is to establish a regime necessary to bring most students up to a basic level of physical fitness which will be necessary to endure work in the NSP. Electronic communications with the “World” will be forbidden during this period, and the single focus of the Student during this period will be completion of basic training. A period of no more than six weeks will be sufficient for basic training.

Upon completion of basic training, the Student will move on to his or her service school, where they will receive additional training in their specific areas of national service. Sometimes, the training will be quite specialized and extensive, but most often, it will rely on the knowledge that the student has obtained while in college. Manual labor fields will be open to anyone, of course, like infantry is open to all in the military, but usually an effort will be made to match a student’s aptitudes to the needs of the service. Physicial fitness will be stressed along side of technical learning. After the training period is completed, the student will head to his or her permanent unit.

Once “In the field”, the student will work a normal work schedule, as the job permits. This includes turning out at 5:30 am three times a week for physical training, unit muster at 7 am daily, where uniforms will be examined and the work order of the day will be announced. The force will then eat breakfast and then will report to their various work sections to conduct the day’s activities, with an hour for lunch around noon, and then work until being secured at around 4:30. They will have an evening muster at 5 pm and then will be put on liberty until the next morning. Work will generally not be conducted during the weekend. Once a week, barracks will be cleaned from top to bottom in the evening. Units will be encouraged to eat all meals together, except when on liberty. Physical fitness will be maintained the entire time, and illicit drug use will not be tolerated. In general, discipline will be somewhat more lax than the military, but gross insubordination will also be frowned on.

This will be the life of the student until they complete their term of service in the NSP.

Step 6: Once a student’s term of service is up, he or she may opt to re-enlist, at somewhat more favorable compensation levels than he or she had as a conscript. Or, they will transition out of the NSP and go to work outside of the NSP. If they opt to remain in the NSP, they will be guaranteed a job for the term of their enlistment, and cannot be laid off. Instead, they will act as managers of the conscripts in the NSP. At this point, they will move onto the pay schedule of the military and will be entitled to the same things that military members at comparable levels are entitled to, including an option for a pension after 20 years in the NSP. But whether they re-enlist or leave the service, their debt to society for their education will be paid off, and they will be completely free and clear of all student loans unless they intend to enroll in college again, at which time they will incur another service obligation.

Some limitations of a NSP like this

Naturally, this program is designed to relieve the pressure on the job market, as well as give students an way out of the debt trap which currently defines the student finance system. I don’t know a student alive which owes a hundred thousand dollars in student loans, which is often what it costs to attend grad school these days, who wouldn’t happily work that debt off in four or even seven years, rather than spending 30 years paying it off while working in some lousy job that barely pays a wage, let alone a decent one.

But of course, there are several limitations: This program removes the ability of employers to set their own wages. I have to admit, if the idea fails, it will be because employers like to pay their workers dirt, and yet they seem to hold all the cards when it comes to things like minimum wages and labor laws, and rights to organize and so forth. If that obstacle were removed, and employers didn’t have a huge source of out of work workers, most of whom have college degrees now a days, the program would have a chance.

Another limitation is that many communities rely on federal projects to fund construction companies and so forth. If the NSP is doing all that these formerly contracted companies used to do, those companies will be redundant. In other words, non NSP workers will be laid off, and will be forced to find other work. For the society as a whole, this is actually a good thing- Contractors always overcharge the government for the work they do. The NP will pay for itself just in terms of the amount of money is saved by denying for-profit companies the opportunity to loot a small part of the treasury every time a road needs paving or an aircraft needs made. But all those workers formerly in those fields lose their money. A transition can come if those same people enlist in the NSP as trainers, to show students how to do those jobs well. The NSP can pay those workers a premium to induce them to join the system, or offer them retraining programs.

Another limitation is the varying degree of ability of the student him or herself. Of course not all students in our universities are 18 year old, perfectly healthy youngsters. Many have serious physical and mental issues which prevent them from the demands of National Service. And some are just plain old folks, who are returning to school after having worked several decades already. This limitation can be overcome primarily by creative placement. A person who is 65 years old is still useful to the society, and can be put to such uses as their ability allows them. They can, for example, function in an office competently. Those with severe physical limitations can be screened for their abilities, and those who simply cannot perform any job currently available in the NSP can be funded as part of the benefits they already receive to support them in other areas of their lives. There is no reason that anyone who wants the opportunity to serve the Nation cannot be offered that opportunity by the nation.

In conclusion

The infrastructure exists for a National Service Program. The wheel doesn’t need to be recreated in this case. The NSP can be built following the same structure as the military. And then, over the years, it can be revised to meet the needs of the NSP.

Several programs already exist which offer debt forgiveness to a limited number of students. The GI Bill already offers veterans a method of at least offsetting some of the cost of college education. But all of these programs fall woefully short when considering the sheer need in society for a fundamental overhaul of the way college is financed. They do not serve the needs of the general society for a mas of college educated individuals, and they do not meet the needs of the college educated in the areas of job placement following graduation, acquisition of basic skills needed by all employees as they enter the job market, and the opportunity to begin creating wealth rather than being forced into wage slavery following graduation because of crushing student loans.

Society needs to pick up the responsibility for the education of itself. The benefits of education are not exclusively individual: Education makes the entire society better: more knowledgeable, more productive, and more inclusive. Education is intimately related to advances in medicine, technology, and culture. Education is a social good, and should represent a deal between individual and society which says “I will seek education. I expect society, who will be the prime beneficiaries of my efforts, to support me in that endeavor. In return, I will repay them by service to the society as a whole equal to the amount of support they gave me. And then we will be square.”