Christopher Shays: “I believe national service is one of the most productive, cost effective investments our government can make. Since the…”

“I believe national service is one of the most productive, cost effective investments our government can make. Since the inception of the Corporation for National and Community Service, of which I was a co-author, more than 1 billion service hours have been generated by Senior Corps volunteers, more than 40,000 individuals have served through AmeriCorps, and more than 1 million high school students have participated annually in service-learning initiatives. In the wake of the September 11 attacks, natural disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and the increasing achievement gap in education, the call to serve is louder than ever. Our amendment will revise and improve the funding formula for AmeriCorps, which engages more than 40,000 Americans in service throughout the Nation, by combining State and national competitive funding streams. National service programs throughout the country believe this change will provide a better means of allocating this funding and will bring the highest quality programs to States.”