The White House's budget proposal for the 2006 fiscal year proposes the elimination of 48 Department of Education programs, including Upward Bound, which has had a chapter at Bowdoin for 40 years. The Orient reported last week on speculation that the program would be cut in the budget, which was released Monday.
Upward Bound is one of the federally-funded TRIO programs established in the 1960s and aimed at helping low-income students and those who would be the first in their family to attend college.
Another program slated to be cut is Perkins Loan program, which provides low interest loans to students.
"We've been able to fund a fair percentage of our aid recipients with that program," said Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid Jim Miller. According to Miller, the reduction or elimination of Perkins Loans "could create some problems for us to offer students the best loan opportunities." Forty to 45 percent of Bowdoin students receive financial aid.
The Education cuts are part of an overall "lean budget" proposal released Monday. According to the Associated Press, 150 programs will be cut or eliminated under the $2.5 trillion budget.
"It's a budget that sets priorities. It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy," President Bush told the AP.
Overall, the Education budget has been decreased by 1 percent from 2005, to $56 billion. The funds from programs such as Upward Bound, which was budgeted at $279.7 million last year, would be redirected to the High School Intervention Initiative, part of a $1.5 billion extension of the No Child Left Behind program to high schools. The new budget would also increase funding for Pell Grants, a federal financial aid program.
Upward Bound is one of five Education programs which received an Ineffective rating under the Bush Administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (35 out of 56 programs received a Results Not Demonstrated Rating).
"Upward Bound received an Ineffective PART rating due to a lack of data on key performance measures and evaluation results that found the program has limited overall impact because services are not sufficiently well targeted to higher-risk students," reads the section of the budget summary, available online at www.ed.gov, proposing the cut. "The proposed new High School Intervention initiative would provide a more comprehensive approach to improving high school education and increasing student achievement, especially the achievement of those most at-risk of educational failure and dropping out."
According to Ginny Fowles, academic counselor and coordinator of program services for Bowdoin Upward Bound, the Administration's case against Upward Bound rests on the Mathematika Study, which people within the TRIO programs, a group of education programs aimed at low-income students, "know to be flawed."
"We've known since the beginning of the first term that Bush was not a supporter of Upward Bound," Fowles said.
"TRIO programs have had bipartisan support, historically," she said. "Generally both sides of the aisle see the value in what we do." Though Upward Bound has survived funding challenges in the past, Fowles points out that in the current situation "everybody on the list of 150 programs is facing the same kind of battle" and it may be harder to receive attention.
"Every government program was created with good intention?but not all are matching good intentions with good results," said Bush in a speech on the economy Tuesday at the COBO Conference and Economic Center in Detroit. "My 2006 budget eliminates, or substantially reduces, more than 150 federal programs that are not succeeding, that are duplicating existing efforts, or that are not fulfilling an essential priority."
One example is the Even Start program for building literacy in low-income families. "We're all for that," Bush said. "The problem is, is that after three separate evaluations it has become abundantly clear that the program is not succeeding."
Like Upward Bound, Even Start received an Ineffective PART rating and is slated to be cut.
The Council for Opportunity and Education, which will spearhead a nationwide effort against the TRIO cuts, holds an annual policy seminar every March in Washington, D.C. "This year's policy seminar will be crucial?a major part of the advocacy effort in response to this," said Fowles.
President Barry Mills said that Upward Bound "has had a dramatic effect in the state of Maine." He said that the budget cuts will place more financial burden on the family and state budgets.
"All of these cuts are in the wrong direction generally," Mills said. "We're trying to create opportunity for students to gain access to greater opportunity."
Fowles called the cuts "counter to what the state needs most for economic development." 82.8 percent of Maine's Upward Bound graduates enroll in college. Maine's budget for Upward Bound last year was $2,153,201.
There is likely to be a lengthy process on Capitol Hill before the budget passes.
"These things undergo a tremendous amount of scrutiny and revision," said Miller.
According to Miller, those in higher education will be keeping an eye on the Perkins Loans and the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965.