Warm greetings from Ann Arbor!
This edition of State & Hill sings the praises of public servants—at a time when the profession is under attack. We present eight MPP alums: professional, creative problem solvers who have dedicated their careers to federal and local government service. Read also the perspectives of five of our faculty members who share why public sector leadership matters and how they challenge our students to make difficult tradeoffs and get the facts right. Read more
In praise of public servants
Fifty years ago, President Ford wrote to the heads of federal departments and agencies in defense of the Civil Service Act and an apolitical public sector workforce.
“I am convinced,” he wrote, ”that a strong career service is one of the greatest strengths of our democratic process and one of the best guarantees of sound, effective, and efficient government.”
What spurred his letter? The Federal Civil Service Commission had recently uncovered evidence that the Nixon Administration had tried to place political appointees into the legally nonpartisan civil service.
Today, proposals such as the Heritage Foundation’s Policy Project 2025 seek to fundamentally change the governance landscape, and likely Republican nominee Donald Trump has promised to convert as many as 50,000 civil servants into political appointees. Max Stier of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service has warned that those policies would be “a very large earthquake,” upending the professionalism, expertise, and commitment to the public good of the federal workforce. Similar challenges continue to play themselves out in state capitals and in local public sector entities, such as school boards and county health departments.
In this issue of State & Hill, we uplift voices from our community to illustrate the value of a professional, well-trained, dedicated workforce—serving us all in federal, state, and local governments across the U.S.
