Did you actually ask any AmeriCorp volunteers what they make in the year?

I myself work a 900 hour position, which lasts from August until June. I recieve a living stipend of just about 6,500 (which believe it or not, is TAXED, and comes to $115 a week!), and an education grant of around $2,500 (which can only be used for school, and for all I know, is also taxed).

Not every member works the whole year even though it’s true that there’s also a summer tour of 300 hours (which pays a whole lot less).

Since this article was written, Washington has added additional tasks for volunteers in schools. We must now all fill out a mentoring sheet, which requires us to create goals for 15 students that we must work with for the entire year. We ‘are supposed to’ document their progress and set goals for each child. When signing up for this possition, it was stated my tasks were to be assigned by the teachers (which for the most part use me as their copy/laminating slave), but when starting my tour, was instructed that Capital Hill implimented these new requirements, which had to be followed if we wanted to keep our funding.

So basically we’re expected to do the work of a teacher, and stay busy with paper work all the while.

I feel, AmeriCorp is only there to help prop up our disgustingly under funded school systems, and instead of hiring enough teachers to share the burden of teaching our young minds, they perpetuate this rotting system backed by a (not working very well) rotting economic structure.

Can you raise a family on $15,000 a year?

As for Mr. Bovard’s examples, one is striking, since I live in Sacramento, CA. Mr. Bovard attacks the St. Hope Academy: ‘was disbarred after an inspector-general investigation found that AmeriCorps members were detailed to serve as personal assistants to the academy’s founder, to perform menial work for the academy, and “to engage in political campaigning to the benefit of St. HOPE’s charter school.”’

First of all, the ‘Hood Corps’, as it was called, was not a “showcase” program, in fact, it only received the basic first three year funding cycle, and was not renewed due to poor reporting by the founder.
Second, the Founder of Hood Corps is no other than the Republican now mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, who did in fact have members was his car, and now settled with the National Corporation and has made arrangements to pay back the money given to the program.

So, Mr. Bovard has misrepresented by appearing to state that using AmeriCorps members as personal assistants is NOT acceptable to the AmeriCorps and agencies like Mayor Johnson’s that violate the provisions of National Service, will be forced to repay the money that was given to the members.

Also, I noticed that Mr. Bovard had not mentioned that AmeriCorps members were the largest single entity in the rebuilding of Gulf Coast communities in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Ommission and misrepresentation are not the ways to get to the truth.

Government programs have always been accessable to fraud and misuse, but a few bad apples are usually not enough to cease services to communities that need it.

How about a Castigation Act?

You’re right — There are a heap if more things in that law that are worthy of exposure, if not castigation.

Have you looked that the actual mess that constitutes the GIVE Act? With some reluctance, I downloaded the pdf as I was curious to see how many pages it has. 364 pages. Think of all the trees gave up their lives for this bill.

What is funny is that this bill really is a cut and paste job. There are sections that were changed from the original CCC act of FDR infamy for example.

I can see why so much crap winds up as “law” in this country due to the need to have all the original codes for reference to *follow* the new law. It would be a lot better and honest to write the law without having to go through all of this. To me, this is nothing less than subterfuge of the most dishonest character.

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1388

That is a helluva construct.

You should work on Capitol Hill!

Or - maybe not -

Now, if only somebody could come up with a good legislative title to go with the acronym BOARHAWG….