National Service
President Clinton’s national service program (NSP) sends the wrong message to our children and complicates administration of the program. His program proposes the standard Democratic Party “reward first, pay later” plan.
Instead of patterning the plan after the GI Bill, which requires people to work first to earn the right to go to college, the NSP would have our children receive their education first. With this plan, it will be up to the program administrators and the IRS to ensure that all participants complete their part of the bargain--and we know how poorly that is working in the student loan program!
President Clinton should have required service first. True national service ought to occur without expectation of reward, let alone reward first. By working first, the participants would have learned a lesson about the importance of earning benefits first. After first earning the right to go to college, they would then seek their benefit without the need of enforcement.
A work-first program would require less oversight, result in fewer defaults and teach our children a better lesson about having to work first in order to be paid--just the way the GI program does!
DAVID F. TUMA
Port Hueneme
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