Under the National Service Bill, authored by Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., young people whom society has placed at a position of greatest disadvantage will be forced to build its roads and carry its guns for a chance at a quality education.

Nunn's bill would deny all federal financial aid for higher education except to those prospective students who enter a one- to two-year program of either military or civilian community service.

Military service would consist of basic training and low-service duties such as kitchen patrol; community service would include conservation programs, Meals-on-Wheels and daycare.

While community service has its merits, the idea of forcing only the lower classes to do society's less glamorous tasks for an education while presenting it as an option to those who don't need financial aid has no merit. In effect, the bill punishes the poor for being poor and wanting to change their status. Such a bill deserves the opposition of U.S. congressional representatives and active lobbying for its defeat by University students.

Proponents of the plan have argued that it would prevent students' graduating without thousands of dollars' debt. But according to the plan, those serving in the military would receive a $12,000 voucher and those in civilian service a $10,000 voucher for each year of service. Assuming service is for two years, the maximum number proposed by the bill, a future student could accumulate only $24,000 or $20,000.

Undergraduate tuition at Penn State is $3,610 a year for in-state students, and scheduled to increase by at least 5 percent every year for at least six years. Four years' undergraduate study at Penn State lands one with a bill for $14,440 without any tuition increases -- and this is only tuition. Additional expenses probably can be counted on to double that sum. And these numbers say nothing about those who need more than four years of undergraduate study or choose to study at a school more expensive than Penn State.

Additionally, this bill fails to recognize a link between race and poverty. That this bill should come at a time when black college and university enrollment is decreasing, while the median family income for blacks has fallen to a little above 50 percent that of white families', is a clear indicator of officials' stubborn refusal to recognize this.

The National Service Bill would be yet another obstacle before the American underclass and higher education, and it deserves to be fought as such.