How will AmeriCorps cuts affect Wisconsin students? Some see cuts, shutdowns ahead
A few weeks ago, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay junior Jasmine Puls was at her AmeriCorps job at the Girl Scout Reaching Out program, preparing for a trip to a local elementary school, when she got an email marked 'URGENT.'
"Out of nowhere, we just got an email that we were being shut down, and that they tried to appeal it but that it was non-appealable, and that there was nothing they could do," Puls said. "We were literally given no warning."
Seven staff members lost their jobs 'within 10 minutes,' including Puls. They weren't alone: Statewide, about 430 AmeriCorps workers found themselves out of work after the federal Department of Government Efficiency made cuts to their programs.
Reaching Out focused on connecting students in underserved communities — often due to financial or language barriers — with outdoor education and life skills, according to assistant program and inclusion director Brittany Pyatt. Many other AmeriCorps programs offered similar services, providing students in need with tutoring and engagement services.
On April 29, Wisconsin joined a multistate lawsuit alleging the AmeriCorps cuts will 'inflict immediate and irreparable harms' to people nationwide. With many of those cuts made to programs interwoven with the education system in Wisconsin, and the state budget for next year not yet set, it's not clear what the future holds for these programs.
Programs for students both inside and outside the classroom are facing an uncertain future. Here's a look at a couple Wisconsin programs that will be affected:
Volunteer tutoring program Schools of Hope, organized through United Way of Dane County, has existed for decades. It provides one-on-one and small group reading tutors to elementary students in need, among other tutoring sessions and support. In annual surveys, staff in Madison-area schools said they've seen student attendance and literacy rates increase through the program's work.
This academic year, over 1,000 students worked with over 175 tutors.
The program relies on AmeriCorps workers in every step of the process: 'tutor coordinators' bring in volunteers, train them, match them with students and evaluate them, UWDC president Renee Moe said.
Or at least they did, until they found out that AmeriCorps funding had been abruptly cut.
"Not only do you disrupt a program for kids to build their confidence, but if someone shows up for you regularly and you have that disrupted, there's a sense of loss there," Moe said.
Another Dane County program, Partners for After School Success, is in a similar situation. PASS provided academic and social-emotional support to students in low-income communities. Now, unless the federal decision on AmeriCorps cuts is reversed, the PASS program will be essentially shut down.
'Without the program, providing these services — which are so critical and already under-resourced — just became more difficult,' Ariana Vruwink said in an email. Vruwink is the communications coordinator for the Dane County Department of Human Services. 'PASS alumni often go on to careers in education, youth work, and community service; the loss of this program will have a negative impact on the human service workforce in Dane County for years to come.'
Reaching Out, the Girl Scout program, is trying to prepare its schools for what will come next. AmeriCorps members led 70 programs in 56 locations in northwestern Wisconsin, said Brittany Pyatt, assistant program and inclusion director for the Girl Scouts of the Northwest Great Lakes. In the Green Bay School District alone, the program served nine elementary schools.
Schools of Hope is able to finish out this year through support from volunteers and the host schools, but next year directors will have to rework the program. The program worked, Moe said, and effective programs don't usually see such sudden, dramatic cuts.
"To have a program that's very efficient and very effective in delivering the results that it's intended to achieve, to have that completely go away," Moe said, "It's just really unsettling."
Contact Green Bay education reporter Nadia Scharf at nscharf@gannett.com or on X at @nadiaascharf.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: How will AmeriCorps cuts affect Wisconsin students?
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