President Obama's controversial firing of AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin, a Bush appointee, in violation of a law that the President himself voted for, highlights the fundamental arrogance, not merely of this Administration, but of the President himself. First Lady Michelle Obama's brazen use of her clout to get her cronies senior positions in AmeriCorps emphasizes the point: for President Obama and his wife, the U.S. government is a source of personal perquisites first.
Obama campaigned for many months, promoting the expansion of AmeriCorps, a domestic Peace Corps, as a model of idealistic government service for young people. [Cynics have depicted legions of goose-stepping, miniature American Hitler Youth in response.] Walpin, a seasoned and reputable lawyer, disrupted the President's narrative by formally and publicly exposing fraud, waste and abuse in the program on the part of a close ally of the President's, Kevin Johnson, former NBA star and mayor of Sacramento, California.
Details here:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/AmeriCorps-feared-bad-press-if-IG-investigation-continued-48998746.html
More here:
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Gerald-Walpin-speaks-the-inside-story-of-the-AmeriCorps-firing-48030697.html
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Expanded-Americorps-has-an-authoritarian-feel-41889742.html
Inspector General Walpin also exposed an AmeriCorps scandal at City University of New York here in New York City as well:
http://www.youthtoday.org/publication/article.cfm?article_id=2946
“The nation's largest and most expensive AmeriCorps program - the Teaching Fellows project at the City University of New York - doesn't meet the essential AmeriCorps criterion of filling an "unmet" need and the federal government should halt the program and recover up to $75 million that has spent on the project over the past six years, a new audit report found.
In two associated audits released late Thursday, Inspector General Gerald Walpin found that applicants to the Teaching Fellow program often didn't know it was an AmeriCorps program, that they weren't swayed to sign up because of the nearly $10,000 in educational funds they could receive, and that it was impossible to determine if the money was going to the fellows or directly into the school's coffers.
In the case of the CUNY program, Walpin found that the AmeriCorps funding duplicated existing programs and that the money was actually helping to deprive some people of jobs, because New York City is under a hiring freeze but is still hiring the teaching fellows.
Usually, the educational grants are awarded to AmeriCorps members who complete 1,700 hours of services - doing things like cleaning out houses ruined by Hurricane Katrina or working in National Forests - so that they can pursue post-secondary education. Those AmeriCorps programs pay a subsistence stipend to participants; the education program pays only the education grants.
In the case of the fellow programs, the money played no role in attracting applicants to the program - which provides full tuition for a master's degree and a teaching job in a New York City School. And unlike other programs that foster lifetime volunteerism, Walpin's audit found that almost none of the teaching fellows pursued any volunteer activities. He said they were receiving "$9,450 [each] for doing nothing additional" than what was already spelled out in the fellows program. Participants received the education grants for two years.
CUNY also received funds to administer the programs.
The program has about 3,000 fellows a year and is budgeted to have 3,600 as of now, according to CNCS records. The fellows program was founded in 2000 and received its first AmeriCorps grant in 2001. It is in the last year of a three-year grant awarded in 2007.”
Abusing a government program? When it’s City University of New York, the Obama Administration condones it!
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