Transcript
PAUL LIGHT: Let me just briefly run over this survey of college seniors for you. You've got the report I hope and I think it's pretty straight forward. I always like to start by thanking the people who helped bring this project to fruition. Princeton Server Research Associates, my colleagues at the Senate for Public Service. Thanks to the Brookings Institution's communications staff who did a terrific job pulling this event together on such short notice and Erin Murphy for her efforts. Sharon Merchant too.
I should also note the importance of my colleagues at the Rand Research Institution whose work on civil service reform and DOD personnel is the deepest in the country and they have informed my work greatly and, of course, David Chou, the Undersecretary of the Personnel in Readiness is a Rand person by history. A terrific shop, not a shop, a think tank and their work is worth taking a deep look at.
Quick note about the survey. It was 1,002 seniors interviewed in April in Liberal Arts and Social Work. They were interviewed by telephone. The margin of error in the statistics that I'll rule out very quickly is plus or minus three percent.
Four main points here today from the survey. Number one; young Americans remain deeply committed to public service. Almost two thirds of the seniors that we interviewed said they had seriously considered a job in public service. That fits with all of our other work at the center on presidential appointees, young Americans more generally, graduates at the top school of public affairs, including, I hope, the Wagner School of Public Service, with which I'm affiliated as the Paulette Goddard Professor of Public Service. Simply put, these young Americans are ready to say "yes" to public service.
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