Upward Bound needs your help: Why TRiO programs need to be fully-funded

Change.org recently posted a call to action, asking readers to contact their federal elected officials in support of TRiO programs.

TRiO programs are “federal outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.” In essence, these programs allow low-income and disabled students the opportunity and tools to become the first in their families to go to college.

According to Change.org, during the last grant cycle (in 2007) for TRiO’s Upward Bound (UB) program, nearly 200 Upward Bound programs lost their funding, including a disproportionate number of programs housed at historically black institutions. It is my understanding that in response to this loss, an amendment to the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA) “provided $57 million each year for fiscal years 2008-2001” to fund UB programs that served approximately 12,000 students. Unfortunately, because the funds were put into effect immediately – and didn’t result in forward-funding like typical TRiO grants – there are no funds to account for these programs once the CCRAA’s money runs out.

Essentially, by not providing additional discretionary funds to cover the costs of these programs, the government has decided to cut the number of active Upward Bound programs from 964 to 788, serving 12,000 fewer students each year. This is in addition to the over 39,000 students who already lost services for fiscal year 2010, due to rising costs.

Why is Upward Bound so important?

For starters, Upward Bound evens the academic playing field for at-risk kids. The teenagers who participate in UB programs can be from low-income or minority families, the first in their families to go to college. Many are also homeless or living “doubled up” with friends or family. Most UB students are a combination of some or all of those things. They also live in economically-depressed areas, like rural communities with high rates of poverty and few social service programs or big cities with lots of crime and few jobs. These are kids who are unlikely to go on to college without the guidance of a program like Upward Bound.

As a former UB student, I urge you – the readers – to encourage your elected officials to support the expansion of TRiO programs and, consequently, funding for the 2011 fiscal year. Because of the Upward Bound program, I was encouraged to go to college and given the tools to do so.

I grew up in a rural, economically-depressed area, where less than half of my classmates made it through four-year college. With Upward Bound's guidance (and financial assistance) I applied to seven colleges and universities, was accepted at six, and graduated cum laude in four years with a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology. I was the first in my family to go to and graduate from college. It was something no one else had ever been able to do. In fact, shortly after my graduation, I had to attend the funeral of a family member. At the service, my grandfather pulled me close to him and said to anyone who would listen, “That’s my granddaughter – she’s a college graduate!”

The fact that I went to and was able to graduate from college was no small feat. I didn’t know anything about college until Upward Bound came along and helped me through the process. I wouldn’t have known to take difficult courses and the SATs – kids who have college graduates for parents know those things, but why would it occur to the rest of us? That I was guided through the process and given the skills (academic and emotional) to cope with and excel in college, resulted in my becoming the first person in my family to go to college; I hope that future generations of my family will be able to pursue their dreams of higher education as well.

In addition to helping me as a high school student, Upward Bound was also able to provide me with an internship during the summer, in between semesters at college. That lead to offers of employment every summer thereafter and turned into a fulltime job upon graduation. I was eventually promoted from Office Manager to Academic Advisor, and I was given the opportunity to help guide hundreds of other kids through the college process. I also helped to educate parents, teaching them how to advocate for themselves and their children by requesting AP classes and extracurricular activities at their children’s schools. I helped raise funds to cover the gaps between a student’s financial aid packet and the cost of college. I took everything that Upward Bound taught me, turned around, and taught it to those kids coming up behind me. I know the value of what was given to me and am eager to pay my good fortune forward.

TRiO programs need to be fully-funded. The opportunity to grow up with Upward Bound and then work for the program made me who I am today. The government likes to count things, to prove that their programs are making a difference. I don’t know if you can count the individuals who went on to lead productive lives because of UB, but I’m afraid that you can count the number of people who didn’t – they’re the ones in dead-end service jobs, in prison, in rough neighborhoods, and in bad relationships, because they didn’t have access to someone who cared about them and guided them through high school and college. They didn’t have the support networks that UB students build with their classmates, teachers, and advisors. They didn’t know that anyone believed in them, and they didn’t get the chance to shine.

College should not be a privilege enjoyed only by the rich or the offspring of college graduates. TRiO programs (including Upward Bound) allow children of all backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, and ethnicities to achieve academic success. These students grow up to give back to their communities and become productive members of society. Eliminating or level-funding TRiO programming is irresponsible and will result in a greater discrepancy between the haves and have-nots in American society.

By not funding the Upward Bound program, we are denying our children the opportunity to take charge of their education and we are most certainly depriving ourselves of a brighter future filled with teachers, doctors, lawyers, writers, social workers, businesspeople, and entrepreneurs who knew what it was like to grow up poor. These are precisely the kind of people we need to make the world a better place. They are the people who give back to their communities by mentoring the next generation of at-risk kids so that the cycle of learning and giving back continues.

Please join the cause and write to your elected officials. You can find them online through the Change.org call to action and read more about the issue at the Council for Opportunity in Education.

If I were a rich man...

Man, oh man. If I had a dollar for every time I got worked up about the inequalities between the rich and the poor, I'd be one of the rich folks about whom I complain.

Last week, Yahoo! News reported that earning just $32,879 puts you in the top half of taxpayers. The story was tucked away on the site's finance page, and while I understand that this might not be breaking news, I'd be surprised if many people know that figure.

I think it's an outrage that wages are so low in this country. We're one of the most educated, technologically-advanced countries in the world and more than half of our residents are living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Let's do the math: Let's say that I make just a little more than the $32, 879 that puts a person in the top half of taxpayers. (I work in Boston, which has a higher cost of living, so I make about $35,000 each year before taxes.)

The average cost of an average apartment in Boston is $1,350 a month ($16,200 a year!). Transportation (whether by car or train) is easily another $150 a month, and that doesn't include maintenance costs. Groceries for a single person come in at around $160 a month. Add in health insurance — which is mandatory in Massachusetts — for an average young professional (at around $175/month), the recommended 10% of your income in savings and/or a retirement plan ($290/month), and about 20% of your gross income for various state and federal taxes ($583/month), and you've got about $2,500 each year (or about $200 a month) for such extravagances as co-pays for doctor's visits or medications, utilities, phone/Internet, travel, and — God forbid — entertainment.

When people are paid so little and costs are so high, it's hard to imagine that people are getting ahead when so many of us are barely getting by. I live well-within my means. I don't have credit card debt, a gambling habit, or even a car loan. I buy store-brand groceries, use coupons, and shop on sale. I drive a beat up car that uses regular gasoline, cover my windows with plastic to keep the heat in during the winter, and have worn the same snow boots since college. I'm a saver, not a spender, and yet I'm still not making much financial "progress."

I do have a modest amount of school loans from obtaining my Bachelor's degree, and I have a fondness for theatre tickets, which I spend my discretionary "fun money" on. Aside from that (and a penchant for pizza, which I indulge once or twice a month), I'm hardly a careless spender. And yet, I make more than half the tax payers in the United States, and I can't afford a house, an extravagant vacation, or even major car repairs.

Something is wrong when more than half the country is barely scraping by. I tend to blame the structure of the system, but also the super-rich for the discrepancy and disparity in wealth.

How do we fix it? Someone recently told me about a business model in Japan that requires companies to succeed together. Though I don't claim to know much about it, it sounds like in order for high-level executives to earn more money, the whole company must improve and all employees must receive wage increases as the executives' wages increase. The "little guys" wages must always be a reasonable percentage of the top executives' paychecks. This ensures that companies work together to succeed and that high-level employees are cognizant of the necessity of having skilled, motivated workers throughout the whole company.

I propose that the United States adopt a similar method. There's no need for the super rich to continue amassing more wealth than is necessary, while millions of people live in or very near poverty. The government also needs a wake up call in regard to its so-called "poverty line." When the national poverty line (meaning that anyone earning less than that amount is living in poverty) is at $10,830 for a single person and $22,050 for a family of four, something is deeply wrong. I, a college-educated, frugal, single person, could not support myself on $22,000 a year, and I certainly couldn't support a family of four on it.

Readers, what do you think? I know that you have opinions on this matter! Please feel free to share them in the comments.