WASHINGTONEver since Republicans took charge in Congress, few government programs have faced as many skeptical questions as AmeriCorps, President Clinton’s beloved national service initiative. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., has derided it as gimmickry, and for months other Republican lawmakers have said it makes a joke of volunteerism.
July 20, 1995
Now, yet another round of battle over national service has begun, and this time the main issue is mathor, more precisely, how to figure out exactly what it costs to give the 20,000 current AmeriCorps members a minimum-wage salary and up to $9,500 for college tuition in exchange for the 1,700 hours of community service work they perform.
The program’s critics and allies say that’s easy. But by the looks of their latest tallies, it isn’t.
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