This op-ed was originally published on nola.com on April 1, 2024.
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By Ge’Ron Tatum and Laura Vinsant
Across Louisiana, Teach For America’s network of 600 teachers and district leaders have been working with local students, families and communities in New Orleans and Baton Rouge for over 30 years to increase learning and opportunities for Louisiana’s students.
This work is possible in large part because of AmeriCorps, whose funding is in jeopardy. Cuts to AmeriCorps funding would hurt our ability to recruit and retain exceptional leaders who want to make an impact in Louisiana’s classrooms. At a time when our students are making up for historic learning losses, we must invest in AmeriCorps.
Teach For America calls for a renewed investment in AmeriCorps, which, for three decades, has brought more than one million people together in service, with nearly 50,000 individuals serving in 10,000 K-12 schools. Teach For America teachers, known as corps members, are also AmeriCorps members.
Participation in AmeriCorps enables our corps members to defer their undergraduate loans for the first two years of teaching and have the interest accrued during those two years paid off by the federal government. AmeriCorps helps bring more leaders into education and serves students by reducing the financial barriers to entering the teaching profession.
AmeriCorps is a program that represents good outcomes with good value for taxpayers. Private, philanthropic and local sources match every AmeriCorps grant dollar. Every $1 Congress invests in AmeriCorps returns more than $17 in investment to communities.
Now is not the time to cut funding to AmeriCorps. Louisiana’s kids — and all children — deserve an education system brimming with educators. We’re calling on Congress to keep AmeriCorps whole, and invest in the future of Louisiana’s young people.
GE’RON TATUM
executive director, Teach For America New Orleans
LAURA VINSANT
executive director, Teach For America Greater Baton Rouge