President Bill Clinton spent most of his first 100 days in office embroiled in controversies concerning cultural and foreign policy issues, the very topics he wisely and successfully avoided during the campaign. At the end of this milestone, however, Clinton hit paydirt with the middle-class voters he so desperately sought in the campaign by enfleshing one program that proved popular: a national service program that would provide debt relief for college students.
On Friday, April 30, Clinton addressed students at the University of New Orleans concerning his two-fold plan for revamping the student loan system. First, Clinton would offer students the opportunity of $10,000 of debt forgiven for two years of service at minimum wage internship positions in the areas of education, environmental improvement, public safety, and social service.
The second component of this program shifts the responsibility of providing the financing from private financial institutions to the federal government. Currently the government guarantees repayment to the financial institution of any defaulted student loans. Under the Clinton plan, the government would make payments for vouchered volunteers directly to the educational institutions.
The National Service Trust Act of 1993 is the first pragmatic example of Clinton's often-mentioned "New Covenant" of reordering rights and responsibilities. Clinton hopes to reawaken the spirit of public involvement, much as his idol, John Kennedy, did in the early '60s. In announcing the details of the service program, Clinton said, "National service will mark the start of a new era for America in which every citizen ... can become an agent of change, armed with the knowledge and experience that a college education brings."
Mostly, however, Clinton has talked more about the practical issues of financing college (in the form of loan forgiveness) than he has about a passion for social change. "This touches people not in their hearts, but in their pocketbooks," said Kathleen Haser, director of Jesuit Volunteer Corps: East.
"Clinton's pragmatic approach, which may be necessary to gain congressional support, may excite people about college, but it does not create the great excitement that the Peace Corps did when it came into existence," Haser added.
Jim Kielsmeier, executive director of National Youth Leadership Council in Roseville, Minnesota, told The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "The gripe I have about the Clinton initiative is that it sounds like an entitlement program for college kids" rather than an opportunity for service.
Encouraging civil involvement and social responsibility is obviously a concern for Clinton. But clearly he also wants to establish a program to serve as his legacy. Just as the Civilian Conservation Corps is associated with Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Peace Corps with John Kennedy, Clinton wants to be remembered for instilling a concern for national service. The question for those already involved in service organizations is whether this program is the best vehicle for the commitment.
THE NATIONAL Service Act will initially authorize 25,000 service positions in 1994, with a target of 150,000 positions by 1997. The budget for '94 is $400 million, and by '97 the budget will increase to $3.4 billion.
According to the College Board, the average package of tuition, room and board, and fees for the 1992-93 school year was $5,841 for public schools and $15,073 for private education. In the face of those prices, loan forgiveness will be a strong incentive to choose participating agencies.
Organizations such as the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, Lutheran Volunteer Corps (LVC), Mennonite Voluntary Service, and others have supplied many interns and volunteers at stipend salaries to social service, justice, and peace agencies for decades. The National Service Program causes some concern within these organizations about being placed at a "competitive disadvantage" to a government program offering loan forgiveness of $5,000 per year.
"If there is to be a national service agency, we want to have language included that recognizes religious service groups," said Ellen Cavanaugh, executive director of International Liaison of Lay Volunteers in Mission (ILLVIM). "The Higher Education Act has in the past included language about religious organizations that are Peace Corps-like for deferment of loans; we would want that language, too."
"It is not even competition over volunteers that concerns me the most," said Chris Bekemeier, director of LVC. "It is competition over good placement agencies. If they can have government-subsidized interns, the agencies quite likely will choose the [government] program."
It would be a tragic irony if the service programs that survived the "me-ism" of the '80s perished because of the "volunteerism" of the '90s.
Ellen Dabagian, development assistant for ILLVIM, feels that instead of creating a new bureaucracy, the government could better operate as a clearinghouse to let those interested in national service know about opportunities for involvement through existing programs--including the government's domestic volunteer program, VISTA. This would save money and red tape and prevent duplication of effort.
The power of the national service program is at the philosophical and psychological levels. "Obviously our country is founded on service; it is part of our very being," says Cavanaugh.
Emphasizing that tradition can be quite valuable. Respecting it by incorporating the thoughts and suggestions of those with a long history of service may be even more instructive.
Bob Hulteen was Under Review editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.
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