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Tell Congress to protect AmeriCorps

Congress recently proposed a disastrous bill that would reduce opportunities for young people to serve their country by cutting the AmeriCorps program by as much as 34 percent. Under the plan, half of all AmeriCorps members serving today would disappear from cities and towns all across the country – a devastating blow to national service.

These cuts mean half as many AmeriCorps members serving with local programs like Southwest Conservation Corps. AmeriCorps members serving with Southwest Conservation Corps build and maintain local trails, remove invasive species from public lands, and complete fire-mitigation projects in Southwest Colorado and Northern New Mexico.

Nationwide, AmeriCorps members make all the difference in overcrowded classrooms, understaffed health clinics, after-school programs that keep kids safe, tutoring programs that lower dropout rates and disaster-relief efforts to rebuild communities after natural disasters.

In addition, more than 470 AmeriCorps members responded to the Colorado flooding in 2013, providing a range of services including supporting sheltering and mass-care operations, staffing call centers, mucking and gutting homes, managing volunteers and supporting evacuation sites.

And, an AmeriCorps member who earns a year’s worth of real-life skills and experience that businesses need costs America far less than a graduate who becomes virtually unemployable after a year without a job.

AmeriCorps members currently earn an education award to cover college costs or pay back student loans in exchange for their year of service, but this bill has the potential to eliminate that opportunity for nearly 50,000 Americans, even as student-debt levels skyrocket and college tuition hits record highs.

It seems impractical to reduce an agency which can, with the collaboration of local organizations, help people who need to stabilize their lives in a time of crisis. AmeriCorps members do not make partisan judgements on who to respond to; they just go help.

I urge Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and Cory Gardner, and Rep. Scott Tipton to reject these disastrous cuts to national service, and I encourage fellow Coloradans to join me in calling on their members of Congress to protect AmeriCorps.

Kevin Heiner, Southwest Conservation Corps

Durango



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