With little trust in our leaders and declining faith in each other, America stands in a deep hole of our own making. Let us resolve in 2020 to stop digging. Instead, let’s make more national service with technical training our path out. Make no mistake. As our country is mired in a simmering civil war, it is time for us to lower the heat and try to bridge the divide.
As for national service, it can instill a sense of civic duty and strengthen communal bonds. In fact, committing time to helping others—whether sustaining national parks, increasing academic achievement, mentoring youth, fighting poverty, or preparing for and responding to disasters—can also yield positive results. Just look at the numbers.
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National service generates societal benefits of about four times social costs and fiscal returns that exceed two times outlays.
Nine out of 10 alumni of AmeriCorps, a network of three primary national service programs, report that their experience improved their ability to solve problems. Eight out of 10 indicate their service helped their career plan. Alumni are more likely to attain a bachelor’s or higher degree than the average American.
Returns may soon grow because of a new private-public partnership. As of this year, participants in, or alumni of AmeriCorps and other programs administered by the federal agency, Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS), can access Service+Tech for free coding training opportunities, local civic technical hackathons, speaker series events and technical career resources. Cisco, SAP and wealthy Americans fund this, in part, because 918,000 information-technology positions remain unfilled.
Access to such training is in addition to the stipend received during service, and the education grant earned upon completion. It is in addition to the loan forgiveness and debt service deferment in place for those who join after college.
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National service plus technical education also addresses a worsening job trend. While the overall unemployment rate trends favorably at 3.6 percent that of recent college graduates is now higher, inching up to 4 percent. That has not happened before, according to NY Fed data going back to 1990. The unemployment rate for recent grads has typically been at least a full percentage point below that of the U.S. labor market. This concerning change is due to a skills mismatch.
It is good news then that Americans’ interest in participating in service has, over the past decade or so, greatly exceeded the number of openings. Over that period, probably between three and five persons apply for each available AmeriCorps slot.