Report on the End of Learn and Serve Funding: Impacts and Next Steps for the Field

The recently released “Service-Learning after Learn and Serve America” report, by the Education Commission of the States’ National Center for Learning and Citizenship, raises and informs vital questions as forward-funded Learn and Serve America (LSA) programs end this August. By interviewing lead service-learning staff at five state education departments (Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Wisconsin), the report also collects and shares vital information shortly before these LSA-funded positions expire.

From a national perspective, the general themes extrapolated from these interviews ring true: the loss of LSA funding will end a vital infrastructure for supporting and expanding quality practice, that it raises questions about the direction of the field, that maintaining high standards for quality practice remains vital, and also that the field is mobilizing and adapting in response. Many of these same issues are echoed in Don Hill’s 1994 “Death of a Dream” essay, predicting the demise of service-learning as a national movement on a timeframe remarkably aligned with the end of funding for LSA.

Despite these setbacks, LSA funding was often thinly spread across states, schools and classrooms, as well as highly leveraged through other funding streams, both public and private. A formula-funded $40 million program can only go so far. While some of the explicit focus on service-learning is certainly at risk due to the end of LSA funding, many of these other funding sources remain. For example, State Farm’s Youth Advisory Board continues to deploy $5 million annually to youth-led service-learning projects, the Department of Labor’s YouthBuild program has seen its funding reduced but not eliminated, and the Department of Education’s Promise Neighborhoods program was even targeted for significant growth in the President’s budget for next year.

The report documents coalitions in Colorado and North Carolina who are coming together to maintain connections and relationships after the end of state-level leadership structures. In doing so, we should ensure that national connections are maintained as well, and that efficiencies like a single repository of service-learning information, such as the National Service-Learning Clearinghouse, isn’t duplicated across state groups. For example, several state coalitions are making use of NYLC’s Generator School Network to stay connected and share resources, both within and across states. Beyond this, it behooves service-learning advocates to be inclusive, actively outreach, and find common cause with related organizations and groups who haven’t been traditional stakeholders in LSA, but whose work includes a strong emphasis on service-learning.