All Carlos Alvarado’s father wanted was for his son to have a better life here in the United States than he had growing up in Mexico.

Now, the program that helped Alvarado afford a college education has suddenly dried up.

“It hit me pretty hard,” the Kansas University freshman said. “It put a lot of stress on me, how things are going to work out.”

After five years of helping arguably the most vulnerable KU students, the U.S. Department of Education has cut off financial assistance for the sons and daughters of migrant farm and factory workers.

“It’s been very emotional from a staff point of view,” said Stacy Mendez, a project assistant for the College Assistance Migrant Program at KU. “The university was blindsided as well.”

The CAMP at KU learned about the government’s decision last month, after a federal panel of judges rejected the program’s grant application to renew its funding.

For the nearly 20 students enrolled in the program, the grant board’s decision cut off a stream of funding and out-of-class assistance meant to break the cycle of poverty for the children of immigrants and poor farm workers.

The program for the past five years paid for six hours of college credits and offered a $750 living stipend for qualified first-year participants.

Most, Mendez said, were either first-generation immigrants or were born in other countries – mainly Mexico and Vietnam.

It was the only such post-secondary program in the state. Educators from community colleges and high schools often sent eligible students to the CAMP, hoping they would get accepted.

According to KU and state research, migrant families said a program such as CAMP addressed needs in the immigrant community.

According to interviews KU conducted with hundreds of families in Liberal, Garden City and Kansas City, lack of funding to help their children with the expenses of college ranked high on their list of needs.

The survey showed that the typical migrant family makes less than $7.75 per hour, yet the Regents system raised tuition costs steadily over the past three years, the grant application said.

“The idea of parents sending their child to a university seems an unattainable dream because of these increased costs,” administrators wrote in the grant proposal.

Still, a panel of federal grant judges declined to fund KU’s program, ranking the KU program just outside of the eight award-winning grant applications, said David DeSoto, who manages Kansas migrant programs for the federal Office of Migrant Education.

DeSoto said 36 schools applied for the grant, with the eight winning programs splitting $15 million in federal funding.

Even if the program worked well during its five-year funding run, DeSoto said if the application wasn’t up to par, the school didn’t get a portion of the money.

Mendez said that she would continue the mentoring portion of the program, often done by former CAMP students, but the program’s former director, Andrew Dalton, left the university after the program lost funding. Dalton could not be reached for comment.

This semester, the chancellor’s office chipped in money to help the students pay for some classes and supplies. But come January, students such as Alvarado will be left searching for ways to afford their education.

The past few weeks, Alvarado said he’s been searching for a full-time job and planning to cut back his hours at school. He still has to pay rent, insurance and bills, he said.

“It’s going to affect me a lot,” Alvarado said. “It’s already hard enough to go to school and work part time.”