Letters to the Editor: Volunteer tutors bemoan DOGE’s ‘disgraceful’ cuts to AmeriCorps

To the editor: I’m one of those affected by President Trump’s disgraceful cuts to AmeriCorps (“California, other states sue Trump administration to block cuts to AmeriCorps,” April 29). I’m a retired nurse practitioner, and this semester I started tutoring two young Pasadena City School District students in reading as a volunteer with Reading Partners, which gets funding from AmeriCorps. On April 27, I received a message from the executive director of Reading Partners L.A. informing us that the nonprofit’s AmeriCorps program has been “put on pause” [Editor’s Note: The Reading Partners program has since announced that it will resume, but with former AmeriCorps members acting as Reading Partners staff].

I was making good progress with my tutees, a 6-year-old first-grader and a 7-year-old second-grader. And every AmeriCorps member I’ve worked with is a dedicated, committed professional who is passionate about their mission.

But in Trump’s America, God forbid we teach our young people to be better readers when we need to scrape together enough money for another massive tax cut for the president’s billionaire pals. I mean, let’s keep our priorities straight.

Janetta Yanez, Sherman Oaks

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To the editor: I was a tutor with the Reading Partners AmeriCorps program before getting the notice that our funding had been cut. What is particularly distressing is that there are only three weeks left to go this semester, so the children we tutor will not even know why we are not coming to see them. We all hope that the government reverses its decision so that we can end out the year with our students and continue next year as we help educate our children.

Andrea Sossin-Bergman, Pasadena