Expand AmeriCorps

For the tens of thousands of students who depend on AmeriCorps’ average $4,724 grant to pay for college, it can mean the difference between an interesting, rewarding career and a dead-end, minimum-wage job. By putting those students to work on important service projects, AmeriCorps funding also helps build strong, happy communities—and it has bipartisan support across the country. A program like AmeriCorps cries out to be dramatically expanded to help young people build skills while at the same time serving their country in a positive and peaceful way. But President Bush’s latest round of harmful budget cuts took $65 million from the program, forcing it to cut the number of awarded positions by 55 percent, from 67,000 to 30,000. And in slashing funding for our nation’s premier volunteer service program, not only did Bush dash the college dreams of millions, but he also did long-term damage to the economy. Bush’s direct measure to decrease the number of students who can afford college will have a negative impact on America’s future productivity.

Recently, Senate and House negotiators inserted a provision to restore AmeriCorps’ previous funding level—and then some—into the omnibus budget bill that the Senate will vote on this month. Following its passage in the House in December, the bill is expected to pass the Senate after it reconvenes next Tuesday. This is great news. President Bush should sign the bill, which calls for $444 million—$10 million more than he asked for in his 2003 State of the Union Address. Bush said in that speech that he hoped for 75,000 participants in 2004. But a program as effective and popular as AmeriCorps should be double that size. It would be ridiculous to suggest that we need fewer services such as building affordable housing, revitalizing green space, training citizens in public safety, mentoring children and building community partnerships for schools, workplaces and government.

Economically, it is better for the country and individual citizens if more people attend college. Not only is there an average difference of $22,000 in salaries for college and high school graduates, but there is a higher demand in the job market for college graduates with specialized skills. The benefits to America as a whole from one person going to college are greater than the benefits to the individual—what economists call a positive consumption externality. For example, this hypothetical college student would earn more, thus giving the government more tax revenue, and she also might start a company that would generate new jobs. Unfortunately, people decide whether or not to go to college based on benefits to them alone, which means that we have underconsumption of college education.

Some politicians understand these concepts. That is why America has subsidized higher education with federal Pell grants on the state level and with programs like AmeriCorps. Ideally, the financial incentives offered by programs like AmeriCorps make the benefit of college the same for the individual as for society, and lead to more people getting college degrees.

One example of a great AmeriCorps-funded program is YouthBuild, which gives unemployed low-income young people in neighborhoods around the country a chance to complete their education and rebuild their communities by creating affordable housing. In exchange for their service, they get a stipend and spend half their time in classes to take the high school equivalency exam and prepare for college. Dorothy Stoneman ’63 started YouthBuild in 1978 in East Harlem and funded it initially by appealing to local organizations and later private foundations. But it wasn’t until 1994 that the program was given federal funding to support replicating the model across the country. Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., was an early champion, according to Maria Vugrin, who is communications specialist at YouthBuild. “He not only introduced the bill but also drummed up a lot of support in Congress and showed why the program is effective,” Vugrin told me. Wider support, she said, came from legislators “who would like to see programs in their own back yard” and realized that $20,000 a year is a bargain to give somebody an education and help fix up the community. YouthBuild USA, which received $3.2 million dollars from AmeriCorps last year, was hit hard by the funding cuts this year, impacting more than 1,400 youths. “Many students who came into the program expecting to get AmeriCorps education awards aren’t getting that funding now,” Vugrin said. “For some of them, their driving goal was always to go to college, and the AmeriCorps Education Awards had made it possible because they don’t have the family support to do it another way.”

With the downturn in the economy and new jobs being generated at below-normal levels, demand for AmeriCorps programs like YouthBuild is at an all-time high. “There are 2.4 million low-income youth across this country who have not completed high school or they’ve finished high school and they don’t have jobs,” said Vugrin. It will be very difficult for these people to get jobs that pay enough to support themselves and their families and help the economy unless the federal government allocates money to train them or send them to college. In the end, it is baffling that AmeriCorps did not receive the pending increases in funding a year ago. A whole generation could be lifted into the middle class, if only we are willing to invest a few fighter jets’ worth of money.

Nicholas F.B. Smyth ’05, a Crimson editor, is a government concentrator in Dunster House.