The Obama-McCain race was a win-win proposition for advocates of national service. Obama’s goals, which he outlined in an editorial in the September 22, 2008 issue of Time, are now enshrined in the new Kennedy Act. But how different would things be if John McCain had been elected president? On the same page of that issue, the Arizona senator stated in his own guest op-ed, “Inspiring Citizens to Do More”:

"As President, I will create a Service to America initiative to bolster the teaching of American history and civics education and to inspire Americans to serve causes greater than their self-interest. Civic participation over a lifetime, working in neighborhoods and communities and service of all kinds – military and civilian, full-time and part-time, national and international – will strengthen America’s civic purpose."

In lieu of concerted opposition – a commodity in short supply – national service can be guaranteed to have a long life. But before leaping further we ought to take a quick look at the track record of the crown jewel of national service, AmeriCorps. Some examples:

• A General Accounting Office audit of 93 AmeriCorps grantees released in August 1995 found that “programs operated by nonprofit, state and local agencies received about $25,800 in cash and in-kind contributions per participant…in contrast to $31,000 for federal agency grantees.” That’s an expensive proposition either way.

• A study of the program for the nonprofit group monitoring organization, Independent Sector, found that AmeriCorps recruits showed only a 3.5 percent increase in hours of actual volunteer activity by participants.

• The program to some extent has politicized charitable activity. One early project was a $1.1 million grant to ACORN Housing Corporation, a subsidiary of President Obama’s favorite nonprofit group. Recruits were assigned to lobby for legislation, collect dues, register voters and engage in demonstrations. Abuses were so widespread that AmeriCorps’ Inspector General ordered the grantee to return the money. ACORN and similar groups no doubt are savoring the possibilities of huge infusions of federal money with minimum oversight.

Even more troubling than programmatic inefficiency is the latent intent of supplanting the private sector in attracting entry-level labor. Advocates of national service such as John Bridgeland, former director of President George W. Bush’s domestic policy council, insist that fears of the program politicizing charitable activity and adding to bureaucracy are way overblown. But from the start, the federal government has used AmeriCorps as a de facto low-wage hiring program, placing recruits in such agencies as the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, and Legal Services Corporation. With the Obama White House seeking a boost in the Corporation for National and Community Service budget from the present $260 million to $1.3 billion in fiscal 2010, expect a lot more of this, especially given that the private sector isn’t exactly in a hiring mood right now.

National service advocates say service is a good way to gain valuable work experience and address national needs at the same time. But what is wrong with private-sector employers deciding which jobs need to be done and at what levels of compensation? Moreover, why should volunteer work of any sort require a subsidy? The very idea of voluntarism is at odds with acts of compulsion (i.e., taxation) to fund it.

Defenders of national service further insist that shortcomings are inevitable in any program; cherry-picking a few negative examples can’t disguise an overall pattern of success. To which one should respond: Yes, some of the money has done good. That is inevitable. But in the end it is not for government, least of all the federal government, to guide how people ought to donate their time and energy toward community betterment. Such volunteer programs “work” only because they have applied to a small portion of the nation. Full participation only can be achieved by compulsion.

The drive to infuse low-wage community service with patriotic impulses is nothing new. President Obama is merely the latest in a long line of advocates. His support for expansion of national service is heavily shaped by his own days as a community organizer. “I found my calling working in a community devastated by steel-plant closings,” he wrote last year. He wants service programs to enable millions of others to find their calling. Unfortunately, the line between service and servility is often blurred. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act would blur it further.