![]() It’s up to President Obama to fight for the national service program and make sure it remains intact.The Segal AmeriCorps Education Award is a post-service benefit received by participants who complete a term of national service in an approved AmeriCorps program-AmeriCorps VISTA, AmeriCorps NCCC, or AmeriCorps State and National. That’s too big a price to pay for a savings so small that it doesn’t even rate as a rounding error in the national budget. Beyond that, thousands of teachers, tutors and mentors would be withdrawn from low-performing schools across the country. The proposed cuts, which would reduce the federal investment in the community service corporation by about a third, would gut valuable programs and shut down others altogether. Six years later, that promise remains unfulfilled - and Republican ideologues in Congress are still trying to kill off this relatively inexpensive but valuable program. Kennedy Serve America Act of 2009 - which passed with bipartisan support and called for gradually increasing AmeriCorps enrollment to 250,000 annual slots by 2017. President Obama committed to making public service a central cause of his presidency during his first run for office. The program has enjoyed strong, bipartisan support among mayors and county officials whose constituents have benefited from it. Bush, who placed a high value on national service. In a typical year, hundreds of thousands of people, mainly in their teens and 20s, apply for roughly 80,000 slots.ĪmeriCorps was created in 1993 by President Bill Clinton and expanded under George W. Studies show that the program expands the spirit of public service nationally: People in AmeriCorps for a year are subsequently more likely to volunteer in and become involved in the communities they live in. In addition to helping communities, the program gives young people a chance to perform rewarding work that often leads them into their careers. The budget for AmeriCorps, a modest $665 million a year, more than pays for itself in terms of social benefits. After a year of full-time service, they receive a modest education award - $5,645 - to put toward higher education or to pay off student loans. In addition, this summer AmeriCorps teams will work in economically hard-hit cities and towns like Baltimore, Detroit and Ferguson, Mo., to clean up public lands, tutor children, repair homes and help keep food banks running.ĪmeriCorps members receive a small stipend to help cover their living costs. Since its inception two decades ago, AmeriCorps has matched 900,000 Americans with nonprofit groups that are doing important work, like Teach for America, the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and United Way. ![]() Yet a House subcommittee this week approved a spending bill that cuts federal financing for the already beleaguered Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees many programs, the most well known of which is AmeriCorps. It would be hardhearted and counterproductive to squeeze any more money from the already meager federal funding for public service programs that help struggling schoolchildren, veterans, the elderly and communities stricken by natural disasters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |