So, like, Valerie Caballero, the AmeriCorps member, was totally helping out a bunch of third graders in Porterville Unified with their reading. She was all, “Hey kids, use your fingers to follow along as you read this passage.” Sounds super helpful, right? Anyway, Valerie, who’s only 23 years old, was working with seven third-graders at Roche Elementary in Portersville. And get this, there were other groups too! Shelly Noble, the teacher, was working with three students on reading comprehension. The rest of the class was doing their own thing in small groups until it was time to switch stations.
I guess Valerie is one of 85 community peeps trained as AmeriCorps volunteers to help over 2,000 students at 10 elementary schools in Porterville Unified. Like, that’s a lot of kids, right? The program gives these students extra time for reading and math stuff that they wouldn’t get otherwise. Valerie was all like, “Families really depend on programs like AmeriCorps to give their kids that one-on-one attention they need.”
There was this fifth grader, Jizelle Alvarado, who’s been benefitting from AmeriCorps since third grade. She said this volunteer named Stephanie Rector helped her read better and do math stuff with big numbers. Jizelle was like, “Without Rector, me and the other kids would still be struggling with reading and math, for sure.”
Last week, there was all this drama because the AmeriCorps program was in danger due to some federal funding cuts. The Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, under the Trump administration slashed nearly $400 million in funding, putting a bunch of programs at risk. California even filed a lawsuit against the administration, along with 23 other states, for messing with AmeriCorps.
If the funding cuts go through, it’s gonna affect a ton of programs and lots of peeps who rely on them. Like, 87 programs and over 5,600 positions in California alone could be impacted. Cassandra González-Kester, the communications manager for California Volunteers, was all, “These cuts are gonna hit hard, especially for the peeps who helped out during the LA Fires and stuff.”
But hey, Porterville Unified is gonna use its own money to keep the program running until the end of the school year. Not every school can do that, though, so some communities might lose out on important services. Thousands of students might have their support interrupted ’cause of these sudden grant cancellations by the Trump administration.
The cuts are gonna hit the most vulnerable kids – the ones who need help with reading and math, the ones who aren’t showing up to school much, the ones whose families are struggling, and the ones in areas hit by disasters. It’s gonna make things even harder for them, which totally sucks.
AmeriCorps is like this government agency that helps out in California and all over by getting peeps to volunteer for important stuff like tutoring, mentoring, and helping out with things like homelessness and health. But now, ’cause of the funding cuts, a ton of families in California could lose out on these services.
First 5 Madera, this place that helps out families with little kids, had to close its doors ’cause of the funding cuts. It was partially funded by AmeriCorps money, so when that got cut, they couldn’t keep going. It’s a bummer for the families who relied on them.
Porterville Unified’s program, ‘Building Communities, Changing Lives,’ is mostly funded by AmeriCorps. They got over $1.6 million in federal funds, and the district chipped in another $1.2 million. Most of that money goes to living stipends for AmeriCorps peeps who work with the students.
Without that AmeriCorps funding, the district might not be able to keep the program running. They’re looking for other ways to fund it, like state grants, but it’s gonna be tough. The state is trying to help out by funding some college corps members to keep working in places like food banks and homeless shelters for the rest of the semester.
It’s a tough situation all around, with thousands of students relying on AmeriCorps for help. If the program goes away, there’s gonna be a big gap in the support these kids need. Hopefully, they can figure something out before it’s too late.
