Obama Plan Would Greatly Expand Volunteer Corps

December 06, 2007

Obama Plan Would Greatly Expand Volunteer Corps

A plan announced by presidential candidate Barack Obama would more than double the size of two national-service agencies and offer tax credits to college students who volunteer, reports the Chicago Tribune.

Mr. Obama, a Democratic Senator from Illinois, would expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 to 250,000 slots; expand the Peace Corps from 7,800 to 16,000; and create a national online volunteer network modeled after Craig’s List to connect volunteers with opportunities.

In addition, he would offer tax credits to pay up to $4,000 in college tuition for students who do 100 hours of community service per year and would also encourage younger students to volunteer at least 50 hours per year.

The article briefly mentions plans from other Democratic presidential candidates to expand volunteer programs.

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Comments

Finally a candidate that gets it!

— Cameron Dec 6, 02:21 PM #
This has real potential, but I hope Senator Obama’s folks do their research on and work to partner with the fantastic organizations already existing that network volunteers with community needs. I’m thinking Hands On Network, VolunteerMatch, and the like.

— Fran Dec 6, 02:45 PM #
“Expanding volunteerism” is such an easy campaign platform to make voters feel all warm and fuzzy, but it’s not as clear cut as it’s made it out to be.

Peace Corps is the size it is for particular reasons – funding levels, numbers of qualified applicants available (note: qualified), interest and infrastructure capabilities in developing countries, etc. Many of the same things are probably true of our domestic Americorps program. Wanting to double their size is one thing – actually being able to do it is a whole ‘nother. If I’m remembering correctly, Kerry promised to quadruple PC. Right.

And how useful is a $4,000 tax credit going to be to college students, many of whom work limited part-time jobs if they work at all? You’ve got to pay $4,000 in taxes for a tax credit to be worth anything.

— Fran Dec 6, 04:11 PM #

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