A fourth-grade student nearly lost her life.
By the time Tara Warren’s AmeriCorps team started working with the student, she was already slipping.
She wasn’t failing tests. She wasn’t acting out.
She was just… off.
Thanks to an AmeriCorps member embedded full-time in her fourth-grade classroom, someone had the time—and the trust—to notice.
That simple check-in uncovered something serious: suicidal thoughts.
The AmeriCorps member alerted the school team. A psychologist got involved. A counselor stepped in. Her family was notified.
A life redirected. A tragedy prevented.
And that was just one day in the Porterville Unified School District AmeriCorps program.
“Without that AmeriCorps member doing that, the outcome could have been significantly different,” says Tara, who launched and now leads the program. “It just goes to show—our teachers are invested, but they don’t always have the time. [With AmeriCorps], we’re putting two people in the classroom. That means double the care. Double the chance to catch something before it’s too late.”
These aren’t just extra hands. They’re lifelines.
In Porterville, AmeriCorps members work directly in every 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade classroom—30 students per room, every day.
They:
-
Run small groups for struggling readers and math learners
-
Lead social-emotional learning sessions
-
Provide targeted support for students who need more than teachers alone can offer
It’s a model built on extensive training, relationship, consistency, and care.
And it works.
Teachers say they’d give up a raise to keep their AmeriCorps member.
And future educators are growing into careers in the very classrooms they serve.
Take Valerie Caballero: she joined AmeriCorps four years ago, then transitioned into student teaching through a partnership with Fresno Pacific University.
This fall, she’ll be hired full-time by the district—confident, classroom-ready, and already connected to the students she’ll serve.
“We’re developing our own pipeline,” Tara says. “They already know our kids. They already know what our classrooms need.”
And now it’s all at risk.
After the April 2025 federal cuts, programs like Tara’s are on the chopping block.
AmeriCorps was the “Plan B” in response to the persistent lack of resources in so many school districts nationwide. For most districts, there’s no “Plan C”.
In effect, for school districts like Porterville, defunding AmeriCorps means weakening or eliminating:
- Academic interventions that keeps kids from falling behind
-
Reading and math support in classrooms with 25 – 30 students and just one teacher
-
Social-emotional skill-building for students who need more care
-
Teacher wellbeing and retention
-
A classroom-based teacher pipeline rooted in local communities
-
A smart, cost-effective solution to the nationwide educator shortage
If you believe students deserve more than the bare minimum—
If you believe teachers deserve more than burnout—
If you believe in prevention, not just reaction—
If you believe in government efficiency, not waste—
Then we need AmeriCorps.
Now more than ever.