[Dialogue] Save the Civilian Community Corps

[Harry Wainwright]

 <http://www.nytimes.com/> The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> 




March 14, 2006

Editorial

Save the Civilian Community Corps 

The federal government did a lot wrong after Hurricane Katrina. But it did
right by immediately dispatching well-trained teams from the National
Civilian Community Corps, an elite arm of AmeriCorps, the nation's flagship
domestic service program. President Bush posed for pictures with volunteers
- and then sent a budget to Capitol Hill that sets up the program to be
eliminated.

The civilian corps includes some 1,100 highly motivated full-time
volunteers, ages 18 to 24, who are based on five residential campuses for
rapid deployment when emergencies arise, like wildfires and hurricanes.
Apart from lodging, members receive transportation and a food allowance
(typically just $25 a week), plus a daily stipend of $13.60. Upon completing
10 months' service, members receive AmeriCorps's standard educational award,
$4,725. 

Other volunteer outfits, including some within AmeriCorps, also provide help
with disaster relief. But the Civilian Community Corps is unique because of
its focus on disaster training and rapid response, and the overall intensity
of its efforts. For more than six months, corps members have been a large
presence in the Gulf Coast region, helping to organize volunteers, serving
as caseworkers for displaced and separated families, and performing a lot of
nasty clean-up work. If the administration were really serious about
homeland security, it would be expanding the corps, not killing it. 

But Mr. Bush's budget proposal for the next fiscal year contains only enough
money to shut down the corps. Other parts of AmeriCorps are hit with much
smaller but nevertheless damaging cuts.

David Eisner, chief executive of the corporation that oversees AmeriCorps,
does not dispute the Civilian Community Corps's effectiveness. He says he
was "heartbroken" to recommend its elimination, but says the step is
necessary, given the tough budget times and the higher costs associated with
fielding members of that program, compared with other AmeriCorps
participants. It's hard to follow this logic because the program's whole
budget is under $27 million, and there is no question that the public gets
its money's worth. The marginally higher cost of disaster and quick-response
training for community corps members is a productive investment for homeland
security and for molding leaders steeped in the value of community service. 

The administration has it backward. Losing this model program is
unaffordable.

*	Copyright
<http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html>  2006The New
York Times Company <http://www.nytco.com/> 

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