[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 162 (Thursday, October 19, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S15367-S15368]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTINUED FEDERAL SUPPORT FOR AMERICORP

 Mr. PELL. Mr. President, this month marks the start of a new 
class of AmeriCorps members who are dedicated to serving this Nation. 
As AmeriCorps celebrates its first successful year and the new class 
begins its service, I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate 
my support for continued Federal funding of this important national 
service initiative.
  Over the past year, 20,000 AmeriCorps members worked in schools, 
hospitals, national parks, and law enforcement organizations to meet 
the most crucial needs of individual communities. AmeriCorps clearly 
helps to provide a more promising future for Americans by expanding 
educational opportunities for the young whole simultaneously improving 
the public services in hundreds of communities.
  In my own State of Rhode Island, AmeriCorps has been particularly 
successful due to the efforts of Lawrence K. Fish, chairman of the 
Rhode Island Commission for National and Community Service. Mr. Fish 
challenged higher education institutions in Rhode Island to grant 
scholarships to AmeriCorps members. Many of our colleges and 
universities answered Mr. Fish's challenge and have begun lending their 
support in the form of college scholarships. His endeavor to expand 
AmeriCorps has offered more students access to an otherwise 
unaffordable education. Mr. Fish's exemplary work in Rhode Island 
serves as the quintessential example of building the natural bridge 
between public service and educational opportunities. In this regard, I 
ask that an opinion editorial by Lawrence Fish from the Providence 
Journal of October 11 be printed in the Record.
  The editorial follows:

           [From the Providence (RI) Journal, Oct. 11, 1995]

                      The Challenge of AmeriCorps

                         (By Lawrence K. Fish)

       Not surprisingly, the debate in Washington over continued 
     funding of the Corporation for National Service has become 
     laser-focused on the politics of embarrassing President 
     Clinton, and not on the people for whom AmeriCorps has been a 
     ringing success.
       And the reason is not surprising. It is that Washington, to 
     the frustration of just about everyone outside the District 
     of Columbia, just can't resist playing an inside-the-Beltway 
     version of Gotcha! From the politicians to the pundits to the 
     press, the emphasis remains on the politics of issues, not on 
     the substance of issues or their impact on real people.
       For whom has AmeriCorps been successful? It's been a 
     success here in Rhode Island to the 250 AmeriCorps members 
     who have signed up for this domestic Peace Corps and whose 
     efforts, mostly in education, have made better, dramatically 
     better, the lives of thousands of our neighbors. Giver and 
     receiver have been enriched by the effort, and for that, 
     Rhode Island is a better place.
       Let me try to explain why AmeriCorps' success here in Rhode 
     Island ought to serve as a model for programs in the 49 other 
     states, and why that success and our promise for the future 
     stand as far more compelling points in the debate than 
     political oneupmanship.
       AmeriCorps members have served in cities and towns from 
     Woonsocket to Newport, bringing with them a wealth of desire, 
     experience and cultural diversity. They have gotten results--
     good results that are measurable. You can see the results on 
     paper and you can see them on the faces of children getting 
     their first ``A's'' and in adults reading for the first time.
       Rhode Island's AmeriCorps program has been very 
     successful--and has been recognized as such. For the second 
     straight year, after a very competitive process that pitted 
     us against 49 other states, we received more AmeriCorps 
     funding on a per capita basis than any other state. In 
     this our second year Rhode Island will field 250 
     AmeriCorps members in eight programs that will touch the 
     lives of thousands of our neighbors. Once again, they will 
     work predominantly in education, because that's where many 
     believe the greatest need is.
       Linking public service and education, we approached the 
     leaders of the state's colleges, universities and technical 
     schools to see if they would accept our AmeriCorps challenge 
     to inaugurate a public-private partnership from which they 
     will get the lessons of service and commitment from 
     AmeriCorps veterans and to which they will provide a quality 
     education.
       The Rev. Philip Smith of Providence College was the first 
     to meet the challenge, and Vartan Gregorian of Brown was 
     close behind. They were followed almost immediately by our 
     other higher-education leaders--Bob Carothers of URI, Sister 
     Therese Antone of Salve Regina, Bill Trueheart of Bryant, 
     Roger Mandle of RISD, Jack Yena of Johnson and Wales and Ed 
     Liston of CCRI. I mention them to dramatize that AmeriCorps 
     runs cost-effective, successful, nonpartisan programs.
       I accompanied the presidents of seven of the state's public 
     and private colleges and universities to Washington for 
     meetings on Capitol Hill and in the White House. There we 
     outlined the Rhode Island Challenge to 

[[Page S 15368]]
     Higher Education, a challenge to provide scholarships to AmeriCorps 
     members that complement the stipends they receive for their 
     year of service. The result is a win/win for both sides: 
     Higher education gets the kind of committed students who are 
     potential campus leaders; and AmeriCorps members pass through 
     another gateway to opportunity.
       The foundation for the Rhode Island Challenge to Higher 
     Education was laid a year ago. Rhode Island's bipartisan 
     congressional delegation, each member of which played a role 
     in the passage of the legislation that brought about 
     AmeriCorps, joined other dignitaries at Slater Junior High 
     School in Pawtucket in AmeriCorps's debut. The setting, a 
     junior high school in the heart of one of our older, 
     struggling cities, provided a fitting backdrop for the Rhode 
     Island AmeriCorps members and the educational programs they 
     would serve.
       In the year since, AmeriCorps members have farmed out 
     across the state, serving as teachers' assistants in public 
     schools, tutors in after-school mentoring programs, and 
     teaching English as a Second Language and GED classes to 
     adults. And they've had an impact, all because they are 100 
     percent behind keeping their end of a bargain to make 
     AmeriCorps work the way in which Congress and the President 
     intended.
       Rhode Islanders would have been proud to have joined me and 
     some of the presidents in the White House Cabinet Room 
     recently when we introduced the Rhode Island Challenge to 
     Higher Education to President Clinton. From the smallest 
     state to the other 49 came the challenge for their colleges 
     and universities to match our commitment of scholarships to 
     AmeriCorps members.
       Our hope, and that of AmeriCorps members around the country 
     and others committed to public service, is that our Challenge 
     to Higher Education can help overcome the cynicism that has 
     come to mark the debate in Washington.

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