O'Malley pitches national service plan

Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley rolled out a new plan to expand national service Wednesday that calls for fully funding the 250,000 AmeriCorps positions authorized by Congress and doubling that figure by 2024.

The proposal calls for ultimately establishing one million national service positions.

In a statement, the campaign says many current applicants for service positions are "denied the opportunity because our nation has invested too little to expand and strengthen AmeriCorps and other service corps."

The O'Malley plan also calls for doubling the size of the Peace Corps, using service opportunities to help veterans find employment and proposes provisions to enable college students to graduate college without debt by participating in national service.

ServiceNation, a group that promotes national service, expressed support for O'Malley's proposal, saying in a statement: "Governor O'Malley's plan to expand national service in America is a massive step in the right direction towards our goal of reaching one million service year positions."

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton last month also proposed a plan to boost participation in AmeriCorps and to reduce college debt.

O'Malley is currently well behind Clinton in national polls and in early voting states. The former Maryland governor is pushing the Democratic National Committee to schedule more debates than the currently scheduled six, saying in an email to supporters Tuesday that "we need more debates to get our positions on the issues in front of voters."