ON THURSDAY, California Attorney General Rob Bonta visited what was left of an AmeriCorps program at the Bel Aire Park Elementary School in Napa.
The 32-year-old federal civilian service agency had been substantially cut down in April under the chainsaw of President Donald Trump’s administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. AmeriCorps members work in schools, food banks, homeless shelters, health clinics, youth centers, veterans’ facilities and other nonprofit and faith-based organizations.
Nearly $400 million in grants were slashed from the independent federal agency’s budget in April, and at least 85% of its workforce was placed on administrative leave and notified they would be terminated June 24.
California grantees received notice of the cuts on April 25 with an email that read, “it has been determined that your award no longer effectuates agency priorities.”
Four days later, California joined 22 other states in a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the action.
Earlier this month, a judge in the U.S. District Court in Maryland issued a preliminary injunction halting the administration from further dismantling AmeriCorps while the lawsuit proceeds. The court ordered funding restored, but the damage had already been done. Grant cancellations and program termination notices were sent in April to approximately 1,031 programs nationwide, according to the California Department of Justice.
The trauma of sudden funding cuts
Bonta was greeted Thursday at the elementary school with a welcome banner made by the school children. He played tag with kids in the hot sun and helped them chop onions in a cooking class. Overshadowing the event was the psychological impact of AmeriCorps’ cuts and the painful way they were done.
“We received notice on a Sunday that $7 million worth of AmeriCorps programming had been canceled the previous Friday,” said Josh Schultz, deputy superintendent of the Napa County Office of Education. He and other administrators in a roundtable discussion shared the trauma of the sudden cuts.
“We had at that time, I believe, 92 AmeriCorps members serving across four major programs in the county,” Schultz said. “They were providing tutoring to about 441 students.”
“Losing them suddenly was like having a hand cut off,” said Barbara Nemko, Napa County superintendent of schools. “They provide so much of the academic portion of both the after school and summer programs.”
She said they did manage to hire some of them back with funding from their afterschool and extended learning programs.
“The negative impact of these DOGE cuts, which are both unfair and illegal, is hurting our communities,” said Josh Fryday, California chief service officer. “These cuts have nothing to do with efficiency and cutting bureaucracy. These AmeriCorps members are tutoring our young kids. They are protecting our communities from wildfires and disasters. They are restoring our ecosystems and our environment. And by taking these programs away, they make us weaker.”
Bonta himself shared a story of his own experience as a civil service worker in 1993 in New Haven, Connecticut, his first year after graduating from Yale University.
“These AmeriCorps members are tutoring our young kids. They are protecting our communities from wildfires and disasters. They are restoring our ecosystems and our environment. And by taking these programs away, they make us weaker.”
Josh Fryday, AmeriCorps chief service officer for California
“Back then, we would live and work in the public housing neighborhoods by the kids,” Bonta said. “It was probably, to this day, the most meaningful and impactful work that I’ve done in service.”
“I remember walking a kid home at night,” he said. “It was after dark, and he said we’re going to get approached, and people are going to come up to us, and they’re going say, ‘are you straight?’ And you’re supposed to say, ‘Yes, I’m straight.’ And so, as predicted, I walked him home. Multiple folks came up to us, ‘Are you straight?’ ‘Yes, I’m straight.’ And they were offering us drugs, and ‘are you straight’ means do you need them. And ‘I’m Straight’ says, I don’t need them, and this was a boy who was 12 years old.”
‘I loved my kids’
Rosanna Mucetti, superintendent of Napa Valley Unified School District, said that 70% of the district’s 16,000 students are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and approximately a quarter of them are multilingual learners. Associate superintendent Julie McClure added that 43% of the students who go through an Expanded Learning AmeriCorps program go on to become teachers.
AmeriCorps alumni Maria Alvarez, who now works as a classroom leader at the school, recalled memories of her own life-changing experience as an AmeriCorps civil service worker.
“I loved my kids. They were my safe place,” said Alvarez, pausing to wipe away her tears. She described how some of them struggled as children and how, when they grew older, they would thank her.
The kids would say, “Hey Ms. M, thank you for helping me. You were there for me when sometimes my parents weren’t there or didn’t help me. You were there even when I felt doubt in myself, and I didn’t want to be here,” she said.
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