Central to the future of rhetoric and composition (or writing studies or whatever label we use) is the service mission of composition: to teach students to write. But that term "service" has not and will not serve us well. This essay examines the limitations and dangers of a service mission and explores a different model, that of a franchise, a public trust that licenses us to control the largest block of classes on most campuses but also makes us responsible for the nation's ability to write. The franchise model carries its own limitations, but it may also point to possibilities of great new promise and familiar danger. (Contains 5 notes.)