Upward Bound's future in jeopardy

Upward Bound, one of the educational programs provided by TRiO, is about to be a thing of the past.

This unique program prepares high school students for success in higher education, but things are about to change.

In President Bush’s latest budgetary proposal, the funding for Upward Bound would be completely eliminated. This means that several North Lake staff members and many students would be directly affected.

The No Child Left Behind Act would assume the funds taken from Upward Bound. According to the U.S. Department of Education, President Bush pushed for the formation of the No Child Left Behind Act in order to “close the achievement gap between disadvantaged and minority students and their peers.”

Upward Bound has a long history of helping students with financial disadvantages gain the knowledge and experience necessary to succeed in a university atmosphere. Lyndon B. Johnson created TriO out of Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965.

The program focuses on first-generation college students or students in lower income brackets. Through the North Lake Campus program, Upward Bound reaches out to recruit high school students from The Academy of Irving ISD, Irving, MacArthur and Nimitz high schools.

North Lake College‘s Upward Bound program is in its fifth year. Last year, 8 out of 10 students who participated in the program moved directly into their college career and all 10 of them graduated with a high school diploma.

What they do is help students overcome class, social and cultural barriers to higher education, all according to the Council for Opportunity in Education.

Guy Melton, director of Upward Bound, is proud of his program’s accomplishments. “I think that what we do for students is so effective that these students would not have otherwise made it out of high school,” said Melton.

Students in the Upward Bound program are four times more likely to earn an undergraduate degree than those from similar backgrounds who did not participate in TRiO, says the council.

Melton is a firm believer in the individual approach to college preparation that Upward Bound is able to give.

Charlotte Brown, the Student Services Specialist for Upward Bound agrees with Melton in saying, “We’re a big family. They’re our children. Their parents sometimes work two jobs. For some, we are their families.”

Melton also said that policy-makers do not fully understand what middle- to- lower income America is going through.

“It is hard for students to stay focused on the bigger picture when they do not know where their next meal is coming from,” said Melton. As part of the Upward Bound program, students who fully participate in their tutoring responsibilities are given a monthly stipend on which to live.

Although the Bush proposal would defer funds from Upward Bound, other TRiO programs would still retain $369.4 million dollars to continue providing services for more than 420,000 students nationwide.

The logic behind such a cut in college preparatory programs comes from a new High School Intervention initiative aimed at providing a broader range of services to help underprivileged students.

Margarita E. Garza, the president of the Southwest Association of Student Assistance Programs, has proposed an initiative to refund the programs that might soon be extinguished.

Garza said in a letter to the SWASAP, “Once again, I would like to reiterate that the battle ahead is not an easy, but it is a winnable, battle. We must organize and collaborate … in order to not only keep our programs, but also to ensure the future of our underrepresented students.”

Melton says the Upward Bound program is set for this year. Unless something is done, funding will disappear for the 2006-2007 school year.

Catina Betoncur, the tutor coordinator, and the rest of the staff of Upward Bound, are encouraging students and faculty members to write their local senators and Congress members in an effort to retain funding.

She said, “This is a chance for them to express their voice. Get politically active.”