Coalition for Service-Learning Statement on House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill
The Coalition for Service-Learning thanks Chair Rosa DeLauro and the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations subcommittee for including a request to the Corporation for National and Community Service (dba AmeriCorps) to plan to restart Learn and Serve America programs. The FY22 House-Labor-HHS appropriations bill that was marked up by the subcommittee on July 12 and by the full Appropriations committee on July 15 includes the following:
Service Learning.—The Committee encourages CNCS to continue to be a convener of the important work surrounding service learning. The Committee requests a report not later than 120 days after enactment of this Act detailing the steps necessary to restart service learning programs such as Summer of Service and Semester of Service on a broader scale.
While we are disappointed that there is no funding appropriated to Learn and Serve America programs in FY22, Coalition organizers look forward to collaborating with CNCS leadership to convene and gather input from Coalition members, prepare the report, support their planning efforts to restart LSA programs, and include funding for LSA in their FY23 agency funding request to the White House. This is a strong statement from the Committee, and we believe that by providing CNCS a year to plan to restart Learn and Serve America, we will be well positioned for the FY23 appropriations process.
Based on this report, we will continue to advocate for at least a $250M annual investment in Learn and Serve America beginning in FY23. Despite significant increases in CNCS’s budget (an additional $194 million recommended for FY22 for a total of $1.3 billion), the agency still invests $0 to engage the Nation’s 76.3 million students in its work to make service to others a cornerstone of our national culture. We cannot wait until our Nation’s citizens turn 18 to include them in AmeriCorps’ mission to improve lives, strengthen communities, and foster civic engagement through service and volunteering. We strongly believe that Learn and Serve America programs should be at least 23% of CNCS’s budget so that the percentage of its budget dedicated to engaging our Nation’s K-12 and higher education students is equal to their percentage of the population.
