President George W. Bush's 2006 budget, to be unveiled Monday, may propose eliminating the Upward Bound program, which has had a chapter at Bowdoin since the 1960s. The funds would be redirected towards an extension of the No Child Left Behind program, according to a report in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Upward Bound, established during the Johnson Administration's "War on Poverty," is one of five federally-funded TRIO programs aimed at helping low income students or those who would be the first in their families to go to college. Students who meet these criteria attend classes on college campuses in the summers before their junior and senior years of high school and receive academic and financial counseling in preparation for college.
Bowdoin's program, now in its fortieth year, is one of six in the state of Maine. Its annual budget is $410,478, according to Bowdoin Director Bridget Mullen. That money provides funding for 100 students drawn from Aroostook and Washington counties and several former mill towns in southern Maine.
"[The loss of funding] would be devastating for the students and their families, and a significant loss of an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of disadvantaged American high school students," Dean of Student Affairs Craig Bradley said.
Students come to Bowdoin for six weeks in the summer, living in Ladd House, Stowe Hall, and Howard Hall, while taking an intense academic class load. About a quarter of Upward Bound students return for a third summer for the Bridge program, which introduces the students to college life and includes a visit to Washington, D.C.
"The kids in the program for the most part want to be there because they realize its worth enough to give up their summers in order to take classes," said Kevin Erspamer '05, who worked for Bowdoin's program last summer. "The fact is that most of the kids do not have the slightest idea about college, and the program guides them through the process in a way that many of our lower-income public high schools are unable to do. It also gives them a reason to work harder in high school."
According to Mullen, Upward Bound has survived similar challenges on several occasions, including the early 1980s under the Reagan Administration and after Republicans won control of Congress in 1994.
"Each time there's been a real strong bipartisan voice that said, 'these programs work,'" Mullen said.
"The single biggest indicator of whether someone is going to go to college and be successful is whether their parents did," she said.
Mullen said that only six percent of students whose families' income falls in the bottom quarter will go to college.
Scott Bradley, a guidance counselor at Morse High School in Bath, attended Upward Bound at Bowdoin in 1978. Bradley comes from Fort Fairfield in Aroostook County and only one of his parents went to high school. He said that without Upward Bound, he most likely would never have attended college and would be a farmer or worker in physical labor in Aroostook now.
"Upward Bound basically took me by the hand and led me through the whole process," he said.
He attended the University of Maine at Orono and returned to Bowdoin to work full-time for Upward Bound for eight years after college. Now, he refers his students to the program.
Talent Search, another program which does not include a summer school element but which starts working with students in middle school, is also expected to be cut under the proposal.
The Council for Opportunity and Education, a volunteer lobbying force, plans to fight the budget when it goes to Capitol Hill for approval. According to Mullen, Maine's delegation, Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe and Democratic Representatives Tom Allen and Mike Michaud, have supported Upward Bound in the past, and several members of Congress are alumni themselves. Mullen is "hopeful but concerned" about the fate of the program.
Scott Bradley recalls the "tooth and nail" fight in the 1980s to keep Upward Bound going, but fears "this could be it."
"I would hate to see this cut," he said. "This program, it is proven, makes a difference in kids' lives."
"We need to be looking at finding good funding for education programs, not cutting them," Mullen said.
Mullen supports the ideas behind No Child Left Behind, but feels a successful program should not be eliminated. According to Mullen, 85 percent of Maine's Upward Bound students attend college, with 60 percent graduating within six years.
The current budget for Upward Bound and Talent Search is about $460 million, according to the Chronicle. Upward Bound and Talent Search serve 450,000 high school students from low income families. In addition, 5,000 veterans are helped by Veterans Upward Bound.
According to The Chronicle, the administration's doubts about Upward Bound stem from a study that shows that the program has not created a significant increase in college enrollment and analyses that the program is financially ineffective.
"I think it is unfathomable that Bush would ever want to cut such a program with a documented history of success for his No Child Left Behind act, which has already proven to be very unpopular with those involved in education," Erspamer said.
The Bowdoin program is currently beginning the admissions process for a new class. Regardless of what happens in Congress, the 2006 summer program will still operate as the program is forward-funded.
"I've been going there for 2 years and it has only made me a better human and helped me grasp my goals," said James Murphy, a high school senior from Biddeford enrolled in this Bowdoin program. "Upward Bound made a big change in my life."