Pete Buttigieg wants Americans to serve their country — and not just through war. So he’s rolling out a national service plan that encourages community work.
The South Bend, Indiana, mayor’s plan, shared on his website under “A New Call to Service,” calls for providing up to a million service opportunities to high school graduates by 2026, which marks the 250th anniversary of America’s independence.
Buttigieg argues that there is far more demand for national service opportunities than there are jobs available. Acceptance rates for the main national service groups are low: 13 percent for AmeriCorps and 25 percent for the Peace Corps. The military also only accepts about 20 percent of would-be recruits, rejecting others for health reasons, inadequate physical fitness, and criminal records, among other issues.
Buttigieg is calling to expand opportunities through AmeriCorps and through new fellowships to 250,000, up from 75,000, and creating “a pathway towards a universal, national expectation of service for all 4 million high school graduates every year.”
His website presents the proposal as another idea to reform American democracy, alongside statehood for DC and Puerto Rico and changing the makeup of the Supreme Court. National service proposals, though, have been a mainstay of Democratic political candidacies for years. Barack Obama called for a similar expansion of AmeriCorps in 2008, as did Hillary Clinton in 2016. President Trump’s budget, meanwhile, has called for eliminating funding for Americorps and other national service programs, although Congress hasn’t gone along with his request.
Buttigieg will provide further details on the proposal during his Wednesday town hall in Iowa. In the plan, he emphasized how his time in the Navy and serving in Afghanistan has been a “life-changing experience” because he worked side by side with a diverse group of people.
“In many ways, we had nothing in common except the fact that we were all American,” he wrote. “But the men and women who got in my vehicle didn’t care if I was a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent. They just wanted to get home safe, like I did.”
Buttigieg plans to target students in high school, community college, vocational school, and historically black colleges and universities, as well as young adults who are neither working nor attending school. Those who serve could be eligible for debt forgiveness and hiring preferences.
The plan will also provide grants for cities to “create ecosystems of service around regional issues” by generating more service opportunities, especially within neglected communities of color and rural areas. The grants are modeled after those given by “Cities of Service,” a national nonprofit that provides money to cities for the purpose of rebuilding homes and cleaning up communities. Buttigieg has had personal success with this model: South Bend received $25,000 from the nonprofit in 2018 for home repairs.
Buttigieg’s plan will add new service groups as well. Climate Corps will work to fight the growing threats of climate change. Community Health Corps will help communities deal with issues like mental health and substance abuse. And Intergenerational Service Corps will serve as caretakers for senior citizens. These new groups would work under the leadership of a “chief service officer,” a newly created position that would serve on the National Security Council and the White House Domestic Policy Council.
While the plan doesn’t mention funding, the Associated Press estimates it would cost $20 billion over 10 years.
Buttigieg isn’t the only presidential candidate who has released a national service plan. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), and former Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) have also released policies that link college affordability and national service by subsidizing education for service members.