December 11, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
Congress has agreed to give the AmeriCorps national-service program $444-million for the 2004 fiscal year, $170-million more than last year.
The move was a sharp contrast to decisions Congress made earlier in the year, when lawmakers refused to provide additional funds for the program amid reports of management and budget troubles at the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs AmeriCorps.
The shortage of funds forced the agency to cut as many as 20,000 of the 50,000 AmeriCorps positions it had planned to fill at charities around the country (The Chronicle, June 26). Nonprofit groups that employ AmeriCorps workers use them for a variety of purposes, such as teaching school, tutoring children, assisting food banks and homeless shelters, helping police departments, and running after-school programs.
AmeriCorps members receive a $9,500 stipend from the federal government in exchange for their work.
Next year’s increased funds may come with new strings attached, including a requirement that charities raise more matching funds from private donors than they are now required to do.
