Cuts in store for the Peace Corps

Peace Corps Numbers

Source: "Peace Corps to Pare Ranks of Volunteers: Despite Bush's Goal of Doubling Program's Size, Tight Budget Forces Cuts," by Christopher Lee, The Washington Post, August 22, 2008.

The Peace Corps is facing both a cut in appropriations and a loss in buying power of the dollar abroad, problems which it proposes to meet by cutting down the numbers of Volunteers in the field by 400, as well as reducing the Peace Corps bureaucracy.

The 8,079 volunteers today number the most in 37 years but are far fewer than the goal of 14,000 by fiscal 2007 that Bush set in his 2002 State of the Union speech.

The Peace Corps costs the texpayer about $40,000 per Volunteer in the field per year. As a former Volunteer, I would guess that local NGO's could do a lot more good with $80,000 in cash than with a Volunteer for two years. On the other hand, the United States is buying a lot of good will in the communities in which these volunteers are serving, and we really need to spend on public diplomacy. Moreover, this is a great educational investment, as the Volunteers not only learn languages and cultures, but a great deal about the world and the people who inhabit it. All in all, I think the Peace Corps is a great investment for the nation!

The failure of the Bush administration to live up to the promise made in his first State of the Union message is a shame. It is, of course, only one of many ways in which the administration has disappointed us and the world.