California’s schools reeling after AmeriCorps cuts

Congress has already approved funding for AmeriCorps for the next fiscal year, which begins Aug. 1. The Trump administration has yet to release the money, which normally arrives earlier this summer. Josh Fryday, director of the state’s Office of Service and Community Engagement, said he didn’t know when the money would be available — or if it would get released at all.

“The administration does not communicate with us,” he said in an interview. “Instead they make rash decisions that hurt our communities.”

Even if the money does arrive this year, Trump’s recent budget proposal does not include money for AmeriCorps after 2026, which means the 32-year-old program may end unless another funding source comes through.

The loss of the program would have a deep impact on hundreds of California schools, particularly those serving low-income students, where AmeriCorps staffs tutoring, mentorship and after-school programs.

“The negative impact of these illegal DOGE cuts hurts our communities. It has nothing to do with efficiency or cutting bureaucracy — it makes us weaker,” Fryday said last week during a visit to an AmeriCorps program in Napa. “But California is not backing down.”

Following April orders from Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, California lost over 5,600 AmeriCorps public service workers and over $60 million in funding.

The 24 states suing the federal government say that the money had been appropriated by Congress to provide crucial government service and that the Trump administration lacked the legal power to cut it. The injunction will remain in place until the court makes a final ruling. States that didn’t sue are exempt from the injunction and any future rulings.

The deadline for the California’s AmeriCorps workers to return was last week, but about half of them didn’t come back — often because they found other opportunities — leaving dire staffing shortages in programs that thousands of people rely on.

‘Like having a hand cut off’

In Napa County, school officials have been scrambling to fill dozens of vacancies and find money to create permanent jobs for AmeriCorps staffers. It’s been especially challenging with the slew of other education cuts schools are facing: the end of pandemic relief grants as well as White House cuts to after-school programs, migrant education and other programs.

AmeriCorps has been “invaluable,” said Napa County Superintendent Barbara Nemko. “They don’t earn a lot of money but they provide an incredible service. Losing them was like having a hand cut off.”

Maria Lopez, a psychology student at Napa Valley College, spent last year as an AmeriCorps worker at the after-school program at Northwood Elementary in Napa. She choked up when she described her experiences in the program.

She developed close relationships with the children and felt she could help them through their social and emotional challenges. When students had tough days, she would encourage them to talk about it, “laugh, cry, be angry ... basically, understand that it’s OK to show emotions,” she said.

“Some of these kids were special to me because I’d see them have a hard time, but then see how they grew,” Lopez said. “They’d say, ‘Miss M, thank you for helping me, you were here for me when my parents weren’t here or when I doubted myself.’ ... Those moments I had with those kids are always here in my heart.”

She was among those who were laid off when the White House slashed funding. She dreaded telling her students.

“It was tragic,” Lopez said. “There was a lot of crying. Some were devastated. ... These kids need this support. It changes lives.”

In the end, Lopez was lucky. Napa County Office of Education found money — at least for now — to hire her as a regular after-school program worker, and she hopes to continue working there after school reopens this fall.

Alexis Lopez got involved with AmeriCorps in part because she knows what life is like for kids with no place to go after school.

When she was younger, she and her brother would wait for hours outside their Napa elementary school for their mother’s shift at a local senior facility to end. They’d watch the secretary lock up and go home, and just keep on waiting, hour after hour.

“I know first-hand how much kids need after-school programming,” Lopez said.

As a student at San Francisco State, Lopez thought she wanted to be a teacher, but changed her mind after she signed up for AmeriCorps and was assigned to work in the after-school program at Napa Unified.

She immediately fell in love with it, and decided to make it her career. She’s now the site coordinator for the after-school program at Phillips Elementary. And her years of AmeriCorps service allowed her to pay off her student loans.

She was shocked when she heard the program had been cut.

“My heart sank,” Lopez said. “This program has such a huge impact on kids. It just feels horrible because it’s beyond your control.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta has his own history with AmeriCorps. Just after he graduated from Yale in the early 1990s, he worked for a community organization in New Haven, Conn., that later became part of AmeriCorps. He worked for more than a year as a mentor and tutor in an after-school and summer program in a public housing facility.

He recalled students confiding in him about their struggles, fears and goals. He also got a glimpse of the difficult — and sometimes dangerous — circumstances his students navigated, and how much they benefited from positive role models.

“It was one of the most meaningful and impactful experiences of my life,” Bonta said during a visit to Bel Aire Park Elementary in Napa last week. “It sparked my passion for public service.”

Sudden layoffs put Los Angeles fire relief on hold

President Bill Clinton started AmeriCorps in 1993, based loosely on the Peace Corps and 1960s-era War on Poverty programs intended to bolster community service and volunteerism and help those in need.

AmeriCorps workers in California — typically, college students and recent graduates — earn a small stipend, plus up to $10,000 in grants to offset tuition and student loans. Older Americans are also eligible and can pass their education grants to their children or grandchildren.

The cuts caught workers and program directors off guard and left roughly 50 California projects in sudden limbo. Even state-funded public service projects are at risk because they rely on the federal government to provide education grants to their staff.

“We were not given really any information,” said Amber Gibson, who runs an AmeriCorps program for the Red Cross. At the time of the cuts, she was overseeing about 20 service workers who were providing assistance to victims of Los Angeles’ Palisades and Eaton fires. Another organization, California Emergency Response Corps, had assigned over 50 members of its AmeriCorps team to provide additional disaster relief.

Together, AmeriCorps workers from the two groups assisted YMCA centers manage donations while helping thousands of victims apply for and ultimately access federal disaster relief. Often, they worked 10-12 hour shifts, said Nadia Rodriguez, the program director of the California Emergency Response Corps.

By the last week in April, the AmeriCorps disaster relief work suddenly stopped. “We had people flying home and driving home within 48 hours of that notice,” Rodriguez said.

Using state money, the California Emergency Response Corps was able to rehire its AmeriCorps workers in different positions, though they were no longer able to work on rebuilding efforts in Los Angeles. That kind of relief work is more expensive, said Rodriguez, so without federal funds, it wasn’t feasible anymore.

The Red Cross has less state money available and decided to close its program entirely soon after Trump announced the cuts in April, Gibson said.

“I worry with these programs getting cut what happens to future humanitarians,” she said. “Disasters are increasing in frequency. We’re in a state of continuous response, and we were building the next generation of leaders who are responding to these threats.”