Lately, any signs of progress in Congress are refreshing, but the budget approved earlier this year represents another missed opportunity to realize the full power of national service. Now that the president has unveiled his proposal for fiscal year 2015, the responsibility lies with Congress again.

The president's budget includes $1.05 billion for the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which funds important programs like AmeriCorps. It will restore some of the damage caused by sequestration, but it won't make whole again many programs like ours that rely on AmeriCorps members.

College Possible bridges the gap between low-income high school students and their dreams of earning a college degree. We currently support 15,000 students in the Twin Cities, Milwaukee, Omaha and Portland, and will launch in Philadelphia next fall. We hope to serve 20,000 students in as many as 10 cities by 2020.

Currently, upper-income students are nearly 10 times more likely to earn a college degree by age 24 than their low-income peers. That's a group of individuals shut out of the educated workforce, based purely on their background. By leveraging the power of national service, our model achieves some of the best results in the country at a fraction of the cost of other efforts. We are making success possible through ACT and SAT test preparation, college-application assistance, financial-aid consulting and support toward degree completion.

Since 2000, 98 percent of College Possible students have earned admission to college, with 92 percent enrollment. Our students are graduating at more than five times the rate of their low-income peers.

Across the country, AmeriCorps engages more than 80,000 Americans in intensive service each year at nonprofits like ours, schools, and community and faith-based groups.

Unfortunately, CNCS has been cut by 13 percent since 2010, costing nearly 15,000 service positions. Without increased funding from the federal level, our ability to innovate and grow is hindered to the disadvantage of our most deserving students.

A richer, stronger America begins with more college graduates. We hope Congress will bolster the president's budget with more investment in national service to ensure there will always be someone to tell our students that nothing is impossible.

Jim McCorkell is founder and CEO of College Possible. Sara Dziuk is executive director of College Possible Twin Cities.