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The Future of National Service
Author(s) -
Reingold David A.,
Lenkowsky Leslie
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
public administration review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.721
H-Index - 139
eISSN - 1540-6210
pISSN - 0033-3352
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02253.x
Subject(s) - milestone , enthusiasm , public administration , service (business) , political science , government (linguistics) , national service , work (physics) , agency (philosophy) , corporation , public relations , business , sociology , law , psychology , history , social science , engineering , mechanical engineering , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , marketing
Passage of the Serve America Act in 2009, reauthorizing the nation’s national and community service programs, represented an important milestone. It was the first time these programs and its parent government agency, the U.S. Corporation for National and Community Service, were reauthorized by Congress since the early 1990s. While advocates of national and community service have hailed the passage of this bill as evidence that these initiatives work and will play an increasingly important policy role, this level of enthusiasm is not well founded. The role that national and community service will play in public policy in the future is, at best, apt to be a modest one. The authors argue that national and community service will continue to underachieve and fall short of the claims made by advocates until it can gain true bipartisan support, clearly define program goals, and produce rigorous empirical evidence demonstrating the impact of these programs.