October 21, 2022
Biden Should Invest in Communities, Not More Community Service
By Lisa Herforth-Hebbert
AmeriCorps pays less than minimum wage for anti-poverty work. With a million unfilled public sector jobs, why not create a program that actually addresses our needs?
By Paige Oamek
On the 100th day of Bill Clinton’s administration, the president spoke at the University of New Orleans in front of a banner the size of a school bus reading “National Service Means Educational Opportunity.” There, he charted a future for young people where a robust national service program went hand-in-hand with the promise of higher education. In 1993, he signed the National and Community Service Trust Act, creating the AmeriCorps program. Upon signing the bill, he cited a “commitment to national service as a part of our drive to make college education affordable” alongside a “deeper desire to bring the American community back together.”
But the program never lived up to this vision. Today, AmeriCorps, a work program that seeks “to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering,” recruits recent college graduates to do short-term, nonprofit work in low-income communities. A federal program that employs over 70,000 young Americans annually, AmeriCorps offers a stipend at poverty wages along with an education award of $6,495 at the end of a 12-month term that can be applied to student loans.
Earlier this year, President Biden announced that his administration was investing in AmeriCorps in a big way. His proposed 2023 budget includes $1.34 billion in funding for the agency, a 16 percent increase compared to the year before. Additionally, AmeriCorps and the Department of Education announced a partnership, with the Biden administration aiming to recruit 250,000 members to help students with “learning loss” over the next three years. AmeriCorps officials say they are focused on the “critical issues of our time—public health, climate and the environment, and education and economic opportunity.” But is investing more in AmeriCorps the best way to address these issues?
