⁍ Schultz, McChrystal: There are not nearly enough national service opportunities for those who want to participate.

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⁍ The CORPS Act would double the number of AmeriCorps positions available this year to 150,000.

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⁍ It would also provide a total of 600,000 national service opportunities over the next three years.

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– Howard Schultz thinks there’s a “silver bullet” to the nation’s economic woes: more national service. In a CNN op-ed, the Starbucks chairman and Stanley McChrystal, a former Army general, call on Congress to pass the Corporation for National Service Act, which would boost the number of AmeriCorps and other national service positions from this year’s 150,000 to a total of 600,000 over the next three years. “Unfortunately, there are not nearly enough national service opportunities available for those who want to participate,” write Schultz and McChrystal. “We can change that.” The act would boost the minimum pay for full-time, paid service from $12,760 today to $22,330. It would also increase the education award young people can earn to pay for school or pay down student loans to twice the value of the maximum Pell grant. It would boost the stipend and educational benefits for AmeriCorps members, “a strong first step towards breaking down inequities that, historically, have made national service for low-income populations, particularly people of color,” write Schultz and McChrystal. “For college students graduating into an uncertain job market … national service is an alternative to waiting for businesses to start hiring and campuses to reopen.”