This is in response to “Demands on youth” (Voice of the people, Oct. 12), a letter to the editor by Paul Woods, which challenged an Oct. 1 opinion piece “A case for mandatory national service.”
In the letter, Woods states, “High school graduates no longer have the choice of whether or not they will go to college; it is mandatory to succeed in this world.”
Yet a universal service draft may offer the best possible approach to this issue.
In this World War II veteran’s thinking, the GI Bill of Rights stands alone as the single most successful piece of legislation ever passed by Congress and signed into law by the president. Its positive economic and cultural payback has never been matched–not even close.
So why not reward a new crop of universal (not just military) service draftees with a similar bill of rights that includes the right to a college education?
