Threat to Upward Bound ‘disturbs’ educators
Bush administration may cut program that some consider crucial to first-generation college students
Taylor Wooten wants to be a U.S. ambassador to a Spanish-speaking country.
A few years ago, she didn’t even know how to sign up for the ACT Assessment exam or apply to colleges. No one in her family had ever attended college.
Wooten, a graduate of Lawrence High School who now is a freshman at Kansas University, credits the Upward Bound program for putting her on the right track for higher education.
“Not having any college students in my family, I didn’t know how I was supposed to go about things,” she said. “All I knew was what I wanted to do, and that was go to college.”
Now, Upward Bound — which helps 455,000 first-generation college students and veterans each year attend college — may be on the budgetary chopping block. The Chronicle of Higher Education reported this week that the Bush administration is looking to cut Upward Bound and Talent Search, which are part of the federal TRIO programs for disadvantaged students.
The administration would then use the $460 million to finance portions of the No Child Left Behind law.
The U.S. Department of Education officials have declined to discuss the budget proposal until it is officially unveiled next month.
Campus fixture
Upward Bound, which has been on the KU campus since 1983, identifies potential low-income, first-generation college students and provides support for them during their high school years, including test preparation, tutoring, college application assistance and financial aid help. That support includes six-week programs on the KU campus, to acclimate students to campus life and college expectations.
Taylor Wooten, of Lawrence, Tyrone Brown, of Topeka, and Gerime Smith, of Kansas City, Kan., are Kansas University freshmen who met through the Upward Bound program at KU. The Bush administration may eliminate funding for the program, which helps first-generation college students prepare for postsecondary education.
The program served 79 students last year.
KU also administers:
- An Upward Bound Math and Science program that aims to place underrepresented students in those fields, which served about 60 students last year;
- Veterans Upward Bound, which provided advising, refresher courses and other assistance to those who have served in the Armed Forces to about 120 students last year;
- And Educational Talent Search, which provides similar but less-intensive assistance to students as Upward Bound. It serves about 1,100 students a year.
