August 5, 2004 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee, has proposed spending $10-million a year to encourage the development of new approaches to enlisting Americans to volunteer.
In a campaign speech, Mr. Kerry said his Citizen Patriots Fund would “support a new generation of social entrepreneurs who are engaged in new and creative ways to serve America.”
The program would make two-year grants of as much as $100,000 each to up to 100 people who have completed service in the U.S. military, the Peace Corps, or a national-service program such as AmeriCorps.
A committee of government, business, and nonprofit leaders would award funds to applicants with “proven leadership ability” who propose the development of new service programs, the Kerry campaign said.
Grant seekers would be required to get dollar-for-dollar matching funds from private sources. They could also apply for additional federal support to continue or expand the new service programs.
Kevin Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association, a nonprofit organization of more than 12,000 former Peace Corps volunteers, welcomed the proposal, saying it would provide “tangible resources” to members of his group. The Citizens Patriots Fund, he said, “would provide the wherewithal to bring back their experiences and lessons from overseas and help strengthen communities here at home.”
But Mathew Spalding, director of the Heritage Foundation’s B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies and a past critic of federal service programs, called the proposed Citizens Patriots Fund “small-minded” and “duplicative.”
“What we need is more volunteerism, not more government programs,” he said. “And if these grants are such a good idea, why give them only to those from the military, AmeriCorps, or the Peace Corps? Some of the best volunteer organizations out there have nothing to do with these other entities.”
Expansion Proposal
In addition to proposing the new grant program, Senator Kerry says he wants to expand federal service programs providing college aid run by the Corporation for National and Community Service to include 500,000 participants by 2010 — a 10-fold increase over current levels. Mr. Kerry would also seek to make community service mandatory for all high-school students, and would offer four years of college aid to as many as 200,000 Americans who served full time for two years. (AmeriCorps members are now eligible to receive $4,725 they can use to pay college costs for each year they participate in AmeriCorps, with a limit of two years of service.)
President Bush has expressed support for national service programs as well, and has proposed a 10.6-percent increase in funding next year for the Corporation for National and Community Service. The president’s fiscal 2005 budget also asked Congress to provide a record $401-million for the Peace Corps, though lawmakers have yet to approve the budget.
Organizers of the 2004 Republican National Convention have also started a campaign called Compassion Across America, urging Republican leaders to organize community-service events during the weeks leading up to the convention’s opening on August 30.
