There is a lot of uncertainty about the future of federal education funding.
On Friday, March 14, the Senate approved a six month funding bill with a 54-46 vote. President Trump signed the bill into law on Saturday, March 15. The bill largely keeps government funding at levels set during Joe Biden’s presidency, with some exceptions. It also gives Trump wide leeway to redirect federal spending.
While we continue to make the case for robust funding of 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which helps provide comprehensive enrichment and academic support through quality afterschool and summer programming for 1.3 million students each year, proposals to cut or eliminate AmeriCorps funding would also be devastating.
Ask a roomful of afterschool providers how AmeriCorps supports their students, and you’ll be plied with praise for the program.
In rural Missouri, AmeriCorps members provide tutoring support and reading interventions for students who are behind grade level.
In Denver, AmeriCorps members help students with homework, provide academic support, and collect data on student achievement. The program has hired multiple AmeriCorps members once they completed their AmeriCorps work.
In eastern Washington state, AmeriCorps members serve as support staff for afterschool programs and organize community family events. A program director says that many small, rural communities would be unable to operate their programs without Americorps. AmeriCorps members also support summer food programs, staving off child hunger during the months when schools are closed.
In Fairmont, West Virginia, 22 AmeriCorps members serve at four afterschool sites, maintaining student records, communicating students’ academic and social/emotional needs to school-day staff, mobilizing community partners to support the program, and leading family engagement initiatives. AmeriCorps members also mentor and tutor students and lead homework help groups. AmeriCorps members make up 78% of program staff. Without them, the program would only be able to reach about half of the students it serves now.
Afterschool Programs Nationwide Rely on AmeriCorps
These aren’t isolated examples. A review of AmeriCorps’ 2023 National Service Reports found AmeriCorps volunteers serving at afterschool and summer learning programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
These volunteers are fulfilling AmeriCorps’ promise and mission by helping give students a safe, educational and enriching place to go after the school day ends and before most parents’ work days are finished. Last September, for the program’s 30th anniversary, then-President Biden wrote: “For 30 years, AmeriCorps members and volunteers have been on the frontlines of confronting our country’s greatest challenges. Whether they are supporting schools in underserved communities, rebuilding after natural disasters, making our people and our planet healthier, or serving the most vulnerable among us…. AmeriCorps members and volunteers are a constant reminder of the resilience, kindness, and compassion of our nation.”
The afterschool community agrees. And AmeriCorps is a good investment. A 2020 study on its return on investment found that national service programs that leverage the skills and talents of citizens to address unmet community needs offer substantial monetary benefits for all stakeholder groups and a significant return on investment. The economists report that every $1 that Congress appropriates to AmeriCorps and Senior Corps returns more than $17 to society, program members, and the government.
We Need More Programs, Not Fewer
Ending most funding for AmeriCorps would make a bad situation for afterschool programs even worse. Today in our country, for every child in an afterschool program, four more are waiting to get in. Nearly 25 million children not in an afterschool program would be enrolled, if a program were available to them, according to a 2022 survey of approximately 1,500 parents commissioned by the Afterschool Alliance and conducted by Edge Research. That is the highest number ever recorded – and ending AmeriCorps would exacerbate the problem.
Parents across the country panicked last fall when they learned that programs they counted on were being forced to turn students away, and in some cases close altogether, due to funding shortfalls – many caused by pandemic relief ending. When afterschool programs aren’t available, students go without the academic and social supports they need to succeed, parents can be forced out of their jobs, and more children and youth are at risk for isolation, harmful behaviors, and other dangers.
At this time when so many students are in need of supplemental academic support as well the sense of belonging and connectedness that afterschool programs provide, slashing a critical source of support should be unthinkable. So for the afterschool community and families who rely on it, all eyes are on President Trump and Elon Musk’s DOGE team to see what leeway they take in making budget cuts and redirecting funds. For the sake of our nation’s students, families, communities and economy, continued support of AmeriCorps is vital.
This story was updated to reflect the passing into law on March 15 of the six month funding bill.
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Jodi Grant has been the executive director of the Afterschool Alliance since 2005. She oversees federal policy efforts, works with the field to help programs tap into federal funding streams, and supervises research to help national, state and local afterschool advocates and providers support, create and expand quality afterschool programs.
This story was produced by the Afterschool Alliance as part of its Afterschool Snack feature. The Afterschool Alliance is a nonprofit public awareness and advocacy organization working to ensure that all children and youth have access to quality afterschool programs. To get more afterschool updates like this, sign up here.
