While I appreciate the publicity that you have brought to the U.S. Public Service Academy, I must disagree with your assessment of the idea. I understand that you may not trust Sen. Clinton and thus you are concerned about the Academy idea, but I urge you to keep an open mind about it until you can learn more.

There is a movement to build the Academy that extends far beyond Sen. Clinton or her campaign. Sen. Clinton has co-sponsored the Senate legislation, but we have bipartisan support — folks like Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rep. Tom Davis, as well as many military leaders (including the last three superintendents of West Point) are also behind the bill. They certainly are not interested in building a school to develop “Hillary’s aristocrats,” and neither are we.

This is not a Democratic idea, nor is it a Republican idea. It is an American idea. It promises to revitalize our public sector by developing stronger leadership. Why does this idea appeal to conservatives? For a number of reasons:
1) The Academy will make government better, not bigger.

2) The Academy will focus on character, leadership development, and patriotic service.

3) The Academy will challenge American higher education to do more to encourage a sense of duty and civic obligation.

Ironically, our strongest opposition to date generally has come from liberals in higher education who think they already do a fine job of preparing our public leaders. Perhaps you agree with them. We think America deserves better.

I encourage you and your readers to find out more about the movement to build the Public Service Academy by visiting:
http://www.uspublicserviceacademy.org.

Thanks,
Chris Myers Asch