Another California example of government waste and cronyism – Orange County Register

California’s new program offering college financial aid in exchange for volunteering is the perfect government program if you’re trying to find one that encapsulates everything that’s wrong with government programs.

In fact, if there was a government waste equivalent of the Academy Award for Best Picture, this program would win it. Everyone involved really should dress in formal wear and order in dinner from a restaurant owned by Wolfgang Puck.

Let’s start with the fact that the government is going to spend $159 million on this program, but only $66.7 million of that will go to college students to reward them for volunteering. About $92 million will be spent on overhead.

It’s classic Hollywood accounting. The more tickets it sells, the more money it loses.

Then there’s the careful scripting of the content to be sure no one’s sensibilities, or jobs, are endangered by the production. Students will be compensated for volunteering on selected, approved projects only.

So don’t worry that any public-sector job-holders will be replaced by enthusiastic beginners trying to work their way to a good education. It’s very important that the volunteers do some type of work that no one would actually pay any union member to do.

The up-to-6,500 California College Corps fellows will only be allowed to volunteer for “community-based organizations” working in “three priority areas: K-12 Education, Climate Action and Food Insecurity.”

In case you can’t tell, Gov. Gavin Newsom has script approval.

Why, you may be wondering, does it cost $92 million for the state to give $66.7 million in “Education Awards” to college students who volunteer?

For one thing, the California Volunteers state program will be “conducting a statewide campaign to raise the visibility of the College Corps.” This campaign, rest assured, will look absolutely nothing like a political ad campaign promoting the governor’s efforts to help students pay for college by “volunteering” for money, otherwise known as working.

There’s more. For $92 million, the California Volunteers program will be “cultivating an esprit de corps for participating students from across the state.”

So, tee-shirts and hats. That’s in the budget. Likely another no-bid contract.

California Volunteers will also be “connecting campuses with potential community host partners in their region,” which is obviously essential, because college administrators plainly have no other way of finding out about non-profit organizations in their region, to say nothing of the difficulty of connecting with them. I suppose you think everybody has a phone or one of those new Google machines. Clearly you haven’t followed the story of the state’s technology problems. California runs on systems that are so old, the training videos are on black-and-white film.

Finally, the California Volunteers program will focus on “engaging research partners to support campuses with data collection and evaluation,” otherwise known as writing a report to justify the eternal continuation of the program. It’s currently slated to run for just two years. If we haven’t solved climate change and food insecurity by then, we can always increase the budget and hire more administrators.

The program as described on the state website, californiavolunteers.ca.gov, puts a particularly heavy emphasis on opportunities for “networking.” The campuses will “participate in regular opportunities for networking.” The students who complete “450 hours of service” will receive “access to training, networking and professional development opportunities.” The organizations that host the College Corps fellows will receive “networking opportunities provided by partner campuses and California Volunteers.”