yoou NEED rich people to prop up insttitutions like tthhiis onoe, and you doo yyour best too keep their inifluence in check.

...who do that, but, by and large, why would someone attend a Public Service academy if they're not interested in a career in public service?  

Seriously... If they want to just go out and make money, I think they'd just go to a place like Harvard or Yale and major in business.  I doubt there would be many people who'd go through all of the time, effort, and aggravation to get into a service academy that's not likely to even have many courses focused on what they really want out of life (making money).  You have to stop and think about the incentives they'd have.

I'm willing to consider a method other than congressional nomination - IF you can prove to me that congressional nomination for the military academies is somehow rife with partisanship and corruption.  

However, I'm a bit perplexed by your seemingly overwhelming hostility to this idea.  Public service is something that should be encouraged.  Our society already places way too much emphasis on going out and making "quick cash" over spending your life, or even a portion of your life, helping society.  A public service academy might be a good way to try to achieve more balance in the kind of goals our society promotes.  It could be the "Peace Corps" for whoever the next Democratic president is.