Obama to “keep our promise to every young American” in tonight’s speech August 28, 2008
Posted by mbdubayou in Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention.add a comment
ServeNext has learned that national service will get a mention in Democratic Presidential nominee Barack Obama’s acceptance speech tonight at Mile High Stadium in Denver.
“America, now is not the time for small plans.
“Now is the time to finally meet our moral obligation to provide every child a world-class education, because it will take nothing less to compete in the global economy. Michelle and I are only here tonight because we were given a chance at an education. And I will not settle for an America where some kids don’t have that chance. I’ll invest in early childhood education. I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support. And in exchange, I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability. And we will keep our promise to every young American – if you commit to serving your community or your country, we will make sure you can afford a college education.”
Watch for it!
Obama’s Cookie August 28, 2008
Posted by aaronjmarquez in AmeriCorps, Barack Obama, Democratic National Convention, National service, Peace Corps.add a comment
Over one year ago ServeNext launched its pledge campaign during the presidential primaries in New Hampshire. We headed to New Hampshire with one mission: to get the presidential candidates to start talking about national service and to commit to expand AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, Senior Corps, and Learn & Serve America. To achieve this we chased the presidential candidates at campaign events all across the Granite State.
We first encountered Senator Barack Obama at a town hall forum in May, 2007. Sitting in a packed elementary school gymnasium in Portsmouth, NH I raised my hand to ask, “Senator Obama will you commit to expanding AmeriCorps by 100,000 annual members by signing the ServeNext Pledge?” As I recall, Obama spoke about the need to create an Education Corps to recruit quality teachers and about how Michelle worked as the founding executive director of the AmeriCorps program Public Allies in Chicago. Then in response to committing to expanding AmeriCorps by 100,000 new members he said, “I don’t know. I have to look at my cookie.”
You see one of the most visible advocacy organizations in New Hampshire during the primary, PrioritiesNH, had a Cookie Mom who passed out cookies with a pie chart of the federal discretionary budget. So basically Barack was telling me, “I gotta figure out how much it costs to fund 100,000 new AmeriCorps members.”
That summer the ServeNext Action Network in New Hampshire continued to bird-dog the presidential candidates all across New Hampshire. When I returned to New Hampshire on Labor Day Weekend we attended a rally for Obama in Manchester. ServeNext all-stars Melissa Paul and Taylor Fergusson battled the crowds at the rally to get both Michelle and Barack Obama to sign the ServeNext Pledge to Expand National Service.
Obama has since gone above and beyond in his proposal to expand national service. His plan calls for:
Expand Corporation for National and Community Service: Obama will expand AmeriCorps from 75,000 slots today to 250,000 and he will focus this expansion on addressing the great challenges facing the nation. He will establish a Classroom Corps to help teachers and students, with a priority placed on underserved schools; a Health Corps to improve public health outreach; a Clean Energy Corps to conduct weatherization and renewable energy projects; a Veterans Corps to assist veterans at hospitals, nursing homes and homeless shelters; and a Homeland Security Corps to help communities plan, prepare for and respond to emergencies.
Expand the Peace Corps: Obama will double the Peace Corps to 16,000 by 2011. He will work with the leaders of other countries to build an international network of overseas volunteers so that Americans work side-by-side with volunteers from other countries.
Engage Retiring Americans in Service on a Large Scale: Older Americans have a wide range of skills and knowledge to contribute. Obama will expand and improve programs that connect individuals over the age of 55 to quality volunteer opportunities.
Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation’s Schools: Obama will set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year. He will develop national guidelines for service- learning and will give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience. Green Job Corps: Obama will create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with service opportunities weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields.
ServeNext is pleased that Senator Obama has decided to make national service a very significant part of his cookie.
Check out this video to see ServeNext in action bird-dogging Senator Obama during the New Hampshire Primary:
ServeNext Action 