A current federal budget bill that was approved by the House of Representatives could end the eight-year run of AmeriCorps. In what has received praise and criticism from all sides of the political spectrum House Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-Ken.) proposed a federal budget bill that seeks to cut $100 billion in spending. The bill aims to cut many areas of the budget including healthcare environmental programs and educational programs.
Rogers claimed the “goal of immediately and dramatically reducing government spending” as the idea behind the bill.
The bill passed Saturday in a Republican-majority House of Representatives with 235 to 189 votes after days of floor debates. Only three Republicans sided with all the Democrats that voted against that bill.
The bill titled H.R.1 the Continuing Resolution aims to establish spending levels for the rest of the current fiscal year and cuts spending in many areas of the federal budget so as to avoid government shutdown as the budget’s due date is fast approaching.
The bill is a direct response to President’s Obama proposed budget which Rogers called “long on rhetoric and lean on spending cuts.”
“My Republican Committee members and I promised to slash spending and to help reduce our nation’s dangerous levels of deficits and debt so that our economy can grow and businesses can create jobs. This bill does just that Rogers said.
The bill would cut funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency that provides more than five million Americans with service opportunities.
The CNCS works with several programs across the nation, of which Senior Corps, AmeriCorps and Learn and Serve America are the biggest three. All three would be eliminated.
According to the organization’s website, AmeriCorps alone works with 75,000 Americans by engaging them in full-time community service.
AmeriCorps has made an impact on the Pepperdine community through Jumpstart, a program that allows students to help in early childhood education and development.
Jumpstart is the only AmeriCorps program that works within Pepperdine. Yearly, it works with 90 to 110 students in about 15 different preschools.
In its eight years, Jumpstart at Pepperdine has had 800 student workers in 120 preschools helping 3,600 children over the course of 300,000 hours of service.
For this academic year Pepperdine has a total of 579 active student workers of which 84, or 14.5 percent, work with Jumpstart. The corps members work in 15 preschools in classrooms ranging from anywhere between 10 to 40 children.
Besides the student workers, the work of at least five Pepperdine staff members would also be affected.
If the bill passes and AmeriCorps is gone the Jumpstart program and the families it helps would be greatly impacted said Jumpstart coordinator Rosealinda Carrillo-Shadursky.
Jumpstart began at Pepperdine through the work of Associate Dean of Students Brad Dudley, who applied for a grant to bring the program to campus in 2003.
AmeriCorps funding is essential to the Jumpstart program. It’s true that if AmeriCorps was not funded that it would affect Pepperdine students serving in the program. More profoundly however the effect is on the communities our Jumpstart Corps members serve Dudley said.
Last year alone 101 Pepperdine students tutored 231 preschool children in 14 classrooms for a combined total 33306 hours. Their goal was to help the children be ready to succeed in school. Ultimately it’s these children that our campus serves that end up losing if funding is cut Dudley continued.
Some students are concerned about the situation as well.
Jumpstart is a chance to serve in the community that is consistent said freshman Young Na, a Jumpstart Corps member at Pepperdine.
Education is the most important thing and Jumpstart shows that. It is the best investment one can make Na continued.
Team leader, junior Christina Krone agreed. Jumpstart gives Pepperdine students a unique opportunity in that it allows them to interact with the greater Los Angeles community away from Malibu.”
“Jumpstart helps build a future generation aware of the need for early childhood education because of the discrepancy in the current educational system Krone continued.
Preschools were heavily hit by the economic cuts. Many preschools are now privately funded and the few that received government funding continue to get cuts. Taking away the help Jumpstart offers preschools is counterproductive Krone concluded.
Regarding the measure, President Barack Obama has vowed to veto it and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promised to remove many of the bill’s funding cuts. The Senate has a Democratic majority, which will make it hard for the bill to pass in its current condition, if at all.
The funding measure’s deadline is March 4. By that date, Congress must either pass some form of budget or risk a government-wide shutdown.