On February 19th, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget that zeroed out funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), the federal agency that administers programs like AmeriCorps, the Foster Grandparent Program, the Senior Companion Program, RSVP, Learn and Serve America, VISTA, the National Civilian Community Corps, the Volunteer Generation Fund, and the Social Innovation Fund.
Eliminating these programs is a terrible idea. Funding for CNCS supports high-impact organizations like City Year, Citizens Schools, Habitat for Humanity, Jumpstart, YouthBuild, Teach for America and literally hundreds of other local programs and initiatives. These programs are impact-driven, results-oriented, cost-effective, and citizen-centered.
Government funding for these programs are leveraged to raise matching dollars from the private and philanthropic sectors, and funds are distributed via a federal-state partnership with nearly two decades of proven effectiveness. This is government at its best, and that's why just two years ago, Congress overwhelmingly voted -- in a rare show of bipartisanship -- to pass the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America act, which promised to expand the very same programs that are now facing elimination.
Among the many good reasons why national service should be preserved, here's one case that needs to be made clearly and powerfully: National service represents a critical pipeline for developing the next generation of effective, committed, inspired civic leaders.
Multiple rigorous, large scale evaluations have found that alumni of national service programs are more civically involved than their peers. A 2007 study of City Year participants found that our alumni were 45% more likely to vote and 65% more likely to be engaged in volunteer activities than peers who had not served. 75% of City Year alumni belong to a community group or civic organization, compared with 29% of similar situated peers in the national population. A 2007 study of AmeriCorps alumni generated similar positive findings related to measures of civic engagement, and found that alumni of national service programs were more likely than peers to pursue public service careers in the government and non-profit sectors.
Teach for America provides one powerful example of the potential national service possesses to channel the civic spirit of young adults towards a lifetime of civic leadership. In recent years, more than 10% of the graduating classes of Ivy League universities have applied to Teach for America, and the organization reports that more than 60% of their alumni continue working in education after graduating from the program. In the absence of a formative service experience like TFA, it is likely that many of these individuals would not have chosen to dedicate their energies and civic spirit to improving American education.
Of course, any effort to make the leadership development case for saving national service should include the voices of the young idealists who have made the choice to serve their country. Here at City Year, we start the year by asking each of our corps members (young adults ages 17-24) to craft their own Personal Leadership Mission Statement--to articulate, in their own words, their highest aspirations for who they want to be as leaders. Here are a just two examples from recent years:
"As a leader, I will strive to appreciate the individual differences and characteristics among all people. Through spreading and sharing this appreciation of differences, I hope to strengthen the human race rather than divide it." ~ Mollie, Senior Corps Member
"As a leader, I dedicate my life to the propagation of world peace, and the happiness of all living beings. I fundamentally believe that in order for this to happen, I start by creating peace within my own life. My happiness and inner peace, rather, inner light, will shine through to my friends, family, loved ones, students, community, and eventually, the world." ~ Erik, Senior Corps Member
Over the course of a challenging year of service working in urban schools, we give our corps members several opportunities to pause and reflect on whether they are living up to their own stated aspirations for themselves. The goal is to connect our corps members to their own deepest sense of purpose and mission while also giving them the opportunity to make a tangible impact on the nation's high school drop-out crisis. Idealism channeled to generate measurable social impact: It's a powerful and proven strategy for bending the trajectory of each corps member's lives towards a lifetime of civic leadership.
Finally, in an attempt to connect us all to the deeper meaning of the critical role that an active, engaged citizenry plays in a democratic society, it is worth taking a moment to engage the topic through the use of imagery and metaphor. In his 1910 essay The Moral Equivalent of War, William James argued that national service had the potential to both channel and magnify the civic passion of American citizens, suggesting that "it is only a question of blowing on the spark until the whole population gets incandescent." It's a powerful metaphor for the value of national service that resonates deeply with the ways that many of America's civic leaders have understood our role in the world. From Ronald Reagan's "shining city on a hill" to George H. W. Bush's "thousand points of light" to John F. Kennedy's declaration that "the torch has been passed", we have often spoken of our vibrant democracy as source of light in a world threatened by darkness.
To eliminate national service is, in a metaphorical sense, to drop the torch that was supposed to be passed to the next generation. In a future without national service, the shining city grows dim and -- instead of being developed into bright flames -- those thousand points of light are allowed to flicker and fade.
Whether the case is made with data, statistics, and case studies or with images and metaphors, the underlying point remains the same: National service programs have a proven capacity to develop civic leaders for life. Should national service be reduced or eliminated, a critical leadership development pipeline in American civic life will be lost, ensuring that the civic energy of tens of thousands of American citizens remains untapped and undeveloped. That would represent nothing short of a national tragedy, and that is just one of the many reasons why eliminating these programs is a terrible idea.