"Serve" America Act

When even the overtly liberal New York Times is calling the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act the “largest expansion of government-sponsored service programs since President John F. Kennedy first called for the creation of a national community service corps in 1963,” Americans should perk up their collective ears.

This legislation will enlarge an already over-bloated federal government by creating new bureaucracies, adding to existing bureaucracies and mandating new taxes. The goal is to increase the number of AmeriCorps volunteer positions from 75,000 to an “army of 250,000 Corps members” according to Mr. Obama. The Congressional Budget office has already estimated that this act will cost the taxpayer $1.2 billion in 2010 and $5.7 billion over the course of six years.

The more troubling aspects of this legislation are that in the past, AmeriCorps has given money to organizations like ACORN. As far back as 1995, it was discovered that AmeriCorps had given ACORN over $1 million. And ACORN is not the only nonprofit to which AmeriCorps gave money and is now involved in scandal. In 2008, an investigation revealed that an Obama supporter, Kevin Johnson, misused AmeriCorps grant money for “personal purposes” ranging from donating it to political campaigns to having his car washed.

Scandal aside, the passage of this act should worry parents of school age children. In the ambiguous language of Capitol Hill, the bill is about volunteerism. However, there is nothing in the bill that prevents the funding of state and local programs that require children to participate in community service as a prerequisite to graduating. There are many schools that do require such prerequisites. This would negate the “volunteerism” aspect of the legislation by making participation “mandatory,” hence the oxymoron, “mandatory volunteerism.” The term “local education agencies” is used frequently in new rules and regulations, of which it took about 200 pages to cover.

The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act gives the appearance that the federal government believes that America’s children belong to the state. The core presumption of this bill, and some members of Congress, is that the government can make better decisions for children than their parents. Although this idea may seem new and innovative to Congress, it isn’t.

“He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.” –Adolf Hitler