A corps of changemakers

Before coming to Wellstone Action, I spent my first year out of college participating in an AmeriCorps-sponsored volunteer program. I found myself living in community with four other volunteers, working full-time in a college service-learning office, and earning a $100 a month stipend.  At times it was challenging, but it also awarded me an incredible amount of personal and professional growth.  I count it as one of the best years of my life so far.  All reasons for which I am excited to see Congress taking up one of the most comprehensive expansions of service legislation in years.

Just last night the Senate passed the Serve America Act, with an amendment to quickly rename it the Edward M. Kennedy Act, while last week the House passed their companion bill, the GIVE Act—Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act.  If passed, this legislation will increase the number of AmeriCorps positions from the current 75,000 to 250,000.  But before I get into too many too many stats and logistics, I’ll say that here at Wellstone Action we think this legislation is pretty cool for many reasons (not to mention a handful of our staff are AmeriCorps alums), but mostly, we see this expansion as an increased opportunity for leadership development, something at our very core.

Let’s face it:  our country is in time of great need our President has called us to serve.  But he’s not the first president to enact service legislation—the idea dates back to FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps and it has crossed both political parties since then.  Most recently, George H.W. Bush supported service-learning through the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and Bill Clinton enacted legislation in 1993 that created the Corporation for National and Community Service, which houses the AmeriCorps program.

I never once second-guessed that I would volunteer upon graduation, but I see the difference just a few years can make.  Recent or soon-to-be graduates do not have the same choice seeking full-time employment in their field during this weak economy.  A recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers shows that companies intend to hire 22 percent fewer college graduates this year versus last year’s class.  This also comes at a time when research and studies show what we’ve already known—young people are facing a tougher time and are the first generation to be worse off than their parents.  The sobering rates of unemployed, uninsured, and in-debt youth generation has to be taken seriously—and an increase in the number of service positions is only one step. 

This legislation offers a bit of hope for the hundreds of thousands soon to graduate.  It not only expands the number of AmeriCorps positions (while also matching the amount received at the end-of-service education award to be equal to the maximum allotted from the Pell Grant to keep up with the rising cost of college), it also demands attention to the following:  improve energy efficiency and preparing for green and innovative 21^st century jobs; improving healthcare in low-income communities; helping students perform better by strengthening schools; and preparing for and responding to disasters and emergencies. 

For many, signing up for a few years of domestic service offers the chance to gain experience in the field, explore a new place and meet new people, and give back.  Most programs offer college loan deferment, a modest stipend or living allowance, and the chance to live in community with other volunteers.  In just one year I walked away with so much.  Much was expected of me in the work environment and in community.  I not only developed professional relationships that I have maintained today, but also how to adapt from years in the classroom to the expectations of a full-time job.  At home I learned how to live in community (yes, the most challenging part of the whole year!) and it taught me about relationships and other worldviews.  But beyond all of that, I had the chance to give back much of what I had been given. 

The reality is that while the economy is down, applications to volunteer and service programs are at a high.  It has been described as the perfect storm—the opportunity to participate in service for a year or two while earning a modest income and meet the needs of those suffering as part of this economic downturn.  Peace Corps has seen a 16 percent increase in applications from this year to last; 9,000 applications were received by AmeriCorps this February compared with last year’s 3,000; and our partner, Teach for America, has received more than 35,000 applications—a 42 percent increase over last year—for this year’s teaching corps, who will work in low-income schools for two years. 

It’s not just college graduates taking part.  Many who have been displaced from work are using some of their time to volunteer.  The legislation would expand opportunities for people to serve at every stage of life.  Special fellowships would be available for people 55 and older and summer positions would be available for middle and high school students.  It also includes the creation of a new Veterans Corps, allowing veterans to continue to serve their country in a different capacity upon return home.

Now that the Senate version has passed, the bill will be sent back to the House of Representatives for approval of the Senate’s changes and could be on President Obama’s desk for approval as early as next week.

So maybe it’s the economy, or having a community organizer in the White House (not to mention First Lady, Michelle Obama’s connection to the service organization Public Allies), or just an increase in individuals wanting to serve.  All of this could mean the potential for a whole new crop of leaders to expand.  I can’t even begin to imagine where they will take our country, but if these individuals’ experiences are anything like mine, I can only say it will be life-changing.

Photo by Sare-Bear on flickr.com

Teach for America

Submitted by JesseAlred (not verified) on April 13, 2009 - 6:13pm.

 I am a veteran teacher in Houston seeking a dialogue with Teach for America teachers nationally regarding policy positions taken by former Teach for American staffers who have become leaders in school district administrations and on school boards. I first became aware of a pattern when an ex-TFA staffer, now a school board member for Houston ISD, recommended improving student performance by firing teachers whose students did poorly on standardized tests. Then the same board member led opposition to allowing us to select, by majority vote, a single union to represent us. Having won school board elections in several cities, and securing the Washington D.C Superintendent's job for Michelle Rhee, Wendy Kopp's friends are pursuing an approach to school reform based on a false premise: that teachers, not student habits, nor lack of parent commitment or social inequality, is the main cause of sub-par academic performance. The TFA reform agenda appeals to big corporations who see our public institutions as inefficient leeches. This keeps big money flowing into TFA coffers. The corporate-TFA nexus began when Union Carbide initially sponsored Wendy Kopp's efforts to create Teach for America. A few years before, Union Carbide's negligence had caused the worst industrial accident in history, in Bhopal, India. The number of casualties was as large as 100,000, and Union Carbide did everything possible to minimize its responsibility at the time it embraced Ms. Kopp. TFA recently started Teach for India. Are Teach for India enrollees aware of the TFA/Union Carbide connection? When TFA encountered a financial crisis, Ms. Kopp  nearly went to work for the Edison Project, and was all but saved by their managerial assistance. The Edison Project sought to replace public schools with for-profit corporate schools funded by our tax money. Ms. Kopp's husband, Richard Barth, was an Edison executive before taking over as CEO of KIPP's national foundation, where he has sought to decertify its New York City unions. In 2000, two brilliant TFA alumni, the founders of KIPP Academy, joined the Bush's at the Republican National Convention in 2000. This was pivotal cover for Bush, since as Governor he had no genuine educational achievements, and he needed the education issue to campaign as a moderate and reach out to the female vote. KIPP charter schools provide a quality education, but they start with families committed to education. They claim to be improving public schools by offering competition in the education market-place, but they take the best and leave the rest. D.C. Superintendent Michelle Rhee's school reform recipe includes three ingredients: close schools rather than improve them; fire teachers rather than inspire them; and sprinkle on a lot of hype. On the cover of Time, she sternly gripped a broom, which she presumably was using to sweep away the trash, which presumably represented my urban teacher colleagues. The image insulted people who take the toughest jobs in education. TFA teachers do great work, but when TFA's leadership argue that schools, and not inequality and bad habits, are the cause of the achievement gap, they are not only wrong, they feed the forces that prevent the social change we need to grow and sustain our middle class.. Our society has failed schools by permitting the middle class to shrink. It's not the other way around. Economic inequality and insecurity produces ineffective public schools. It's not the other way around. Ms. Kopp claims TFA carries the civil rights torch for today, but Martin Luther King was the voice of unions on strike, not the other way around. His last book, Where do we go from here?, argued for some measure of wealth distribution, because opportunity would never be enough in a survival of the fittest society to allow most of the under-privileged to enter the middle class. Your hard work as a TFA teacher gives TFA executives credibility. It's not the other way around. Your hard work every day in the classrooms gives them the platform to espouse their peculiar one-sided prescriptions for school improvement. I would like a dialogue about what I have written here with TFA teachers. My e-mail is JesseAlred@yahoo.com.

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