At this critically complex time in history the challenges government face are only increasing in importance. Which leads to a thesis: never before in our history has our nation relied so much on our public servants – and our need for great thinkers/leaders/doers will only increase in the future. Therefore, we should do everything possible to ensure we are motivating the nation’s greatest humans to take up the challenge of public service.
U.S. Representative David Price (D-NC) and Senator George Voinovich (R-OH) are working on legislation that holds the potential to dramatically improve our nation’s ability to groom and attract individuals pursuing graduate degrees in high-skill, high-need areas like computer science, information technology, engineering, medicine, foreign languages and law. The legislation is known as the Roosevelt Scholars Act of 2009. The House bill focuses on graduate-level scholarships, and will probably be introduced by the end of June (watch for a slip till after the 4th of July recess). The Senate bill includes both undergraduate and graduate scholarships (this is reportedly the only differences in the two that will need to be resolved), and may follow after the House version.
The key component of both House and Senate version of the act is the ability to provide scholarships to individuals in a program modeled on the military’s very successful ROTC program, which has proven to be an outstanding source of new talent for our nation’s armed forces.
This program will enable more of today’s youth to enter public service with less burden, and will also provide many with the ability to pursue advanced technical degrees they might not be able to pursue without scholarship. More important than all that, however, is the impact this will have on the future of our federal cadre and the future of our nation.
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If you agree with the thesis above, I would like to encourage you to show support for the Roosevelt Scholars Act by contacting your members of Congress. Your support is important at this stage. It is also important to let your voice be heard via other paths: perhaps by old media (write letters to the paper), but hopefully also by the new media you are no doubt already active in (your blog, your Facebook page, LinkedIn, and of course Twitter).
Would you like more information? Want to sign an online petition? Visit the website of the non-profit Partnership for Public Service page for this act, the URL is: www.ourpublicservice.org/roosevelt
Thanks!
Bob
Related posts:
- A Recap of the 2009 DoDIIS Worldwide Conference
- Compliance enhances IT support to the mission
- Government 2.0 Camp 27-28 March 2009 in DC
