AmeriCorps grows up / Congress gives it bipartisan support to expand
Editorial: AmeriCorps grows up / Congress gives it bipartisan support to expand
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Despite its patriotic-sounding name, AmeriCorps was not greeted with general enthusiasm when it started 10 years ago as the domestic equivalent of the Peace Corps. Conservative politicians, with a reflexive disdain for any initiative coming out of the Clinton administration, grumbled about government-funded volunteerism.
A decade later, AmeriCorps has moved largely beyond controversy into consensus. Conservatives, not just in Congress but in state capitals held by Republican governors, have seen the good those volunteers have been doing across the country (245 of them in the Pittsburgh area).
AmeriCorps volunteers help nonprofits in education and the environment. They help with public safety and homeland security, especially in the area of disaster relief and preparedness. They tutor kids, build homes and meet other needs. For a year of full-time service, they receive an education award of $4,725 that they can use to pay for college or graduate school (or to pay off student loans).
This is a great deal for the country, and a chance for personal growth to those who serve. But AmeriCorps' self-evident strengths would not be enough to guarantee its future in the face of the usual array of naysayers and reactionaries. What has made a major difference is the leadership of none other than President George Bush.
These columns have contained plenty of criticism of Mr. Bush, but give credit where credit is due. After the terrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, the president challenged the nation to revive its domestic virtue through volunteerism, an American instinct dating back to Ben Franklin. With Mr. Bush's support, the idea has newly prospered.
The 2004 omnibus appropriations bill, signed by Mr. Bush last month, provides $167 million more for AmeriCorps over the 2003 level, a historic funding increase that enables AmeriCorps to boost its volunteers to 75,000.
All told, the umbrella organization, the Corporation for National and Community Service, received an appropriation of $935 million, an increase of almost 20 percent over last year. The corporation also has other key programs such as Senior Corps and Learn and Serve America.
With this boost from Congress, organizations in Pittsburgh may have a better chance of funding projects. (Those interested should contact PennSERVE, the Governor's Office of Citizen Service, in Harrisburg -- www.penn-serve.state.pa.us. The deadline for AmeriCorps grants is March 8).
It has taken 10 years for the benefits of government-sponsored volunteerism to catch on, but catch on they have.
