The idea of creating a national university is not new. More than two centuries ago, George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson advocated for a national university. Today--energized by concerns about the performance of civil servants and the need to recruit a new generation of talent into key federal, state, and municipal positions--a new proposal to launch a U.S. Public Service Academy has drawn much attention The proposal for a federally funded Academy is modeled on the existing military academies and would offer students a free four-year college education in return for five years of public service. In light of the need to recruit a new generation of talent into key federal, state, and municipal positions, two scholars debate the merits of a Public Service Academy. In "The Case for a U.S. Public Service Academy," Chris Myers Asch, a cofounder of the Academy, makes the case for the Academy by addressing seven critiques that are commonly raised against the idea. In "How Not to Fix the Civil Service," Philip I. Levy, a resident scholar at AEI and one of the Academy's skeptics. raises broad questions about the value and feasibility of tackling the public service challenge by launching a new institution. (Contains 33 footnotes and 2 figures.)