How about majoring in serving America?

In 2006, Asch and Raymond decided to get serious about this national public service academy idea.

Asch says the annual cost of the USPSA would be $205 million. Once the campus is established, about 5,000 students would be enrolled, selected through the same nominating process the service academies use. They would get a free education in return for five years of public service in sectors where they would be needed most - education, for instance, or international affairs, emergency management, law enforcement. For its investment, the nation would get not only thousands of years of public service from the academy's graduates, but also an annual crop of Americans who regard government as a way to make a difference, not just a salary and pension.

Last year, Asch got an authorization bill into both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He says 24 senators, including Maryland's Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski, and 123 representatives, including Elijah Cummings, John Sarbanes and Dutch Ruppersberger, signed on as co-sponsors. (So did former Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, now Obama's chief of staff.) Asch claims support of many congressional leaders, with more signing on; he expects the plan to be reintroduced again next month. He says his idea has been endorsed by "70 college presidents and three former superintendents of West Point."

Resistance, he says, comes from "elite private colleges" that oppose federal funding of the USPSA and want the money for scholarships. But, Asch argues, the USPSA would be a better deal for students and taxpayers.

President Obama is proposing an expansion of AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps. He also wants to give college students a $4,000 annual tax credit for 100 hours of public service a year.

Asch supports the AmeriCorps and Peace Corps expansions, but he sees problems with the tax credit proposal.

"The definition of 'service' is too broad," he says. "The $4,000 for 100 hours equals $40 an hour, which means just about every kid is going to scheme to apply for the money; that will be a logistical nightmare - and an expensive one, to boot. And if students suddenly have access to $4,000 more in college money, colleges will react as they have throughout the past generation: by raising tuition."

Plus, he says, the tax credit for college kids is not as bold or as potentially enduring as what he has in mind.

"Bill Clinton had AmeriCorps, and John Kennedy had the Peace Corps," Asch says. "What's going to be Barack Obama's legacy [on public service]? Tax credits?"

Establishment of the United States Public Service Academy sounds a whole lot better.