Federal funding cuts at Americorps could affect the number of Americorps members serving in schools and colleges in Southwest Michigan, as well as recent graduates who hoped to join the program. In April, the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, cut 400 million dollars from Americorps.
Ryan Fewins-Bliss directs the Michigan College Access Network, which trains Americorps members to help students navigate the college application process and remain in college once they get there. Members serve at Lake Michigan College and at high schools in communities around the state, including Coloma, Watervliet, and Hastings. He said the non-profit found a way to fund Americorps positions through the end of last month, and hopes to find a way to continue.
“We will definitely look at what other programs we need to lift up. Maybe it’s a national program that we bring into the state, maybe it’s a reinvention of the current program, or maybe it’s all locally driven,” he said. “We don’t have all the answers to that yet, but there’s no way we can say, ‘Americorps cut our program and now we can’t serve this need.’”
One recent graduate of Western Michigan University, who asked not to be named, was in the final stages of applying to join Americorps when they learned their program was terminated. They said that now they don’t know whether to look for a different job or hope Americorps returns. They’re concerned for the people and non-profits who rely on Americorps.
“It’s crippling,” they said. “They’re taking away our ability to not just help ourselves, but to help each other at this point, and that’s what I guess I find the most troubling.”
The Michigan Education Corps is one of the organizations that relies on Americorps members. It trains them to serve as tutors for students who need extra help in reading and math. Americorps members with the program are working with kids throughout Michigan, including in Benton Harbor, Battle Creek, and Decatur. Executive Director Holly Windram said her agency found a way to keep most tutors until the end of the school year. But next year is uncertain.
“We are having to navigate, how do we maintain relationships, with not only with those wonderful individuals who serve as tutors, who can trust us to exist and provide this amazing experience for them, but our schools as well,” she said.
In April, Michigan and 23 other states sued Americorps over the cuts. On June 5 a judge reinstated funding for this school year’s programming in those states, but next year’s funding is still to be determined. Americorps did not respond to our request for comment.
