EDITORIAL: National disservice

“I will get things done for America to make our people safer, smarter and healthier. I will bring Americans together to strengthen our communities.”

Those words come from the pledge volunteers take when they sign up for service in AmeriCorps. They embody the ethic of service to one’s country and its citizens. 

Elon Musk said on a recent podcast: “The fundamental weakness of Western society is empathy.”

That contempt for public service was obvious when Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency team of software engineers and other recruits ordered crippling cuts in AmeriCorps funding.

The cuts are arbitrary—with no relationship to the government waste Musk’s agency claims to be rooting out—and they are devastating to a program that gives volunteers opportunities to serve their country in ways that directly serve the needs of other Americans.

Ozaukee County was instantly affected when the funding slash forced AmeriCorps to shut down hundreds of service efforts in counties across the country and send the volunteers home.

Just before it came time for AmeriCorps volunteers to plant some 8,000 trees in the Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in Port Washington, the project was canceled. The program’s volunteers had done similar work in other Ozaukee County parks and preserves for a number years. 

In Milwaukee, a program that helped citizens entering the Milwaukee County Courthouse with information and guidance in navigating the often intimidating and confusing Justice Center complex to find offices and courtrooms was shut down because the dozens of AmeriCorps volunteers who provided the services had been dismissed.

The DOGE cuts, which terminated the unpaid jobs of 430 AmeriCorps members in Wisconsin, eliminated needed public services that were provided at no cost to state and local taxpayers in Ozaukee and Milwaukee counties and elsewhere in Wisconsin and at minimum cost to federal taxpayers. But the depredation of AmeriCorps has far more serious consequences in communities across the country.

The AmeriCorps Seniors network provided volunteers for community and faith-based organizations that help seniors with daily living tasks. Elderly citizens in many states are now deprived of the reliable care and companionship of AmeriCorps volunteers who helped them stay active and involved in their communities.

Other AmeriCorps services performed in cooperation with more than 1,000 organizations nationwide that will be cut back or eliminated include disaster recovery, staffing food pantries, tutoring students and working on projects that improve parks and other public facilities.

DOGE took away 41% of AmeriCorps grant funding—a cut so deep it makes it seem that the intent is to shut down the program. In a cruel irony, that outcome in the name of government efficiency would deprive the country of an organization that is considered one of the most efficient and cost-effective agencies functioning in the federal government.

AmeriCorps works as a partnership that matches private contributions with federal funds. State governors decide how and where to put resources to work. It has been calculated that every federal dollar invested in AmeriCorps programs generates a $17 return to society.

On April 29, Wisconsin and 23 other states filed suit in federal court to overturn the AmeriCorps funding cuts on the grounds that the organization and its programs were created by Congress and cannot lawfully be dismantled by the Trump administration.

Members of Congress of both parties have expressed outrage over the damage to AmeriCorps. Condemning the DOGE cuts in an op-ed essay in the Washington Post, Republican Rep. Don Bacon, co-chair of the bipartisan National Service Congressional Caucus, wrote, “AmeriCorps is national service at its best: voluntary, community-based, impactful and efficient.”

AmeriCorps was established by Congress at the urging of President Bill Clinton in 1993 to provide an opportunity for national service in addition to the military and the Peace Corps. Its volunteers are not paid for their work but receive a living allowance of $12,600. They join the Corps for a 10-12 month term to serve their country by helping people in need. 

Their experience is all about public service and empathy. 

No wonder the Musk gang targeted AmeriCorps.