AmeriCorps is in trouble, and it needs to be saved.

We often hear politicians exalt the work of volunteers who reach out a hand to their neighbors in need. Service to others is invoked on countless daises, praised by public figures and offered as an example of the fabric of America’s social contract with its less fortunate.

Now, a successful program that does good work is under assault, and its future is unclear.

Extreme demand for AmeriCorps workers following Sept. 11 and some significant accounting problems have left the Corporation for National and Community Service, the parent agency for AmeriCorps, on the verge of collapse.

Legislation passed by the House and Senate solves the accounting problems and protects about 16,000 volunteer slots nationwide. That’s a far cry from the 50,000 slots a year that the program was intended to fund.

Liz McCabe-Park is the director of the Maine Campus Compact, which is part of the AmeriCorps Education Award Program and is located at Bates College. On Monday, 70 students finished their term of service with the organization. They worked in soup kitchens, tutored other students, performed environmental restoration and recruited and led others to service around the state. The program brought more than $60,000 in scholarship money to Maine. McCabe-Park has been told to expect the worst – all 70 positions could be eliminated.

Around the state, there were more than 160 AmeriCorps workers this past year. That number could dwindle to less than a dozen.

But the impact could actually be even more severe. Consider Camp Sunshine. The 20-year-old camp in Casco runs 17 sessions a year that help families dealing with life-threatening issues. AmeriCorps volunteers from Perry Point, Md., arrived at the camp in early May and worked through June.

Mike Katz, the camp’s campus director, knows the important roles the volunteers played. They counseled families who have lost a child during bereavement week and worked with kids suffering from cancer.

“The volunteers were fabulous,” Katz said. “They did some of the less glamorous jobs – put up rock walls, lugged mulch and put up fences.”

Volunteers who serve up to a year can receive an educational stipend of $4,725. That money helps students pay for college. Anything we can do to help our students go to school should be embraced, in addition to the good work they do.

In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush praised AmeriCorps and enunciated a goal of increasing national service by 50 percent, to 75,000 annual slots. As it stands, even maintaining the program at its current levels is in question.

Estimates suggest it would cost between $185 million and $200 million to save the program.

McCabe-Park says that some of her students would continue to do their important work “out of the goodness of their heart,” while other needs would certainly go unmet.

We don’t think that’s acceptable. AmeriCorps deserves saving. The country needs it.

Congress and the president should find a way.


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