I realized how poor my family was when I was a high school senior. While filling out a financial aid form to go to college, I looked at my mom’s tax return to see how much she made. I asked her if it was a mistake. It wasn’t. She made $11,000 a year to support a family of four. Today I make four times as much as my mom did mainly because of one reason. Not dogged ingenuity or self-determination. My mom has more of those traits than I do. The great equalizer for me was a college education. Regretfully, because of some potential cuts, fewer New Englanders will have a chance at a degree.
According to a new study by University of Massachusetts economists, since 1979, the chasm between the rich and the poor has grown in Massachusetts. Across the nation, research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that child poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009 (including Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island). As a result, 14.7 million children, or 20% of all children under age 18, were poor in 2009. In addition, the current recession has increased the overall number of Americans living in poverty by 18% since 2000.
The good news is that since 1964, our government has had two successful programs that have helped Americans from low-income and first-generation college backgrounds (whose parents never enrolled in higher education) prepare for and earn their college degrees, helping to stop the cycle of poverty. The federally funded TRIO programs (Upward Bound, Veterans Upward Bound, Math-Science Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search, Student Support Services, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program, and Educational Opportunity Centers) and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR-UP), serve more than 50,000 low-income, first-generation college students and disabled individuals throughout New England.
The TRIO and GEAR UP programs have had millions of successful participants, including many with New England ties, like University of Massachusetts Boston Chancellor Keith Motley; astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz; Vice President at Spelman College Arlene Wesley Cash; Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis; basketball coach and Olympic medalist Patrick Ewing; and CNN Commentator Steve Perry. The programs provide college preparation and awareness, working with individuals from middle school through adulthood. Usually located on college campuses, more than 125 of these federally funded programs operate in New England, for example, at Boston University, Bowdoin College, MIT, the Community College of Rhode Island and the universities of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Regretfully, although these successful federal programs only had funding to serve about 10% of the eligible population, they have faced budget challenges this year. As a result of across-the-board domestic spending cuts of the continuing resolution passed by Congress in May, the president and Congress cut TRIO and GEAR UP by 3%. Instantly, about 75,000 low-income students across the nation lost a chance at a college degree. The debt ceiling package may cut these effective programs even more.
My mom use to tell me, “You pay now or you pay later.” The typical college graduate working full-time paid over 82% more in total federal, state and local taxes than the typical high school graduate. College graduates are also healthier, vote more often and are less likely to be unemployed. The government can chose to invest now or pay much more later.
President Obama and Congress talk about the importance of an educated America, setting a goal to be No. 1 in the world in higher education degree attainment by 2020. However, due to recent cuts, the resources that the poor have have decreased while the preparation needed to go to and be successful in college has gotten more complicated and expensive. With only the privileged going to college, we will never reverse the poverty trend or get close to reaching the 2020 goal. But we do know what works. According to the U.S. Department of Education, students who have participated in TRIO’s Student Support Services program are more than three times as likely to earn a bachelor’s degree compared with their peers who received a Pell Grant without TRIO services. TRIO is a way to make good on the investment of Pell.
There used to be a time when people didn’t have to go to college to become successful. Society has changed. It’s hard to pick yourself up by the boot straps if you have no shoes. Postsecondary education is the only systematic way out of poverty.
By maintaining and increasing funding for these programs, congress and the “super committee” will take real action in increasing college graduation rates, shrinking the divide between the rich and the poor, while also creating jobs. When I was in high school I knew that only a college education would help my family get out of poverty. Around the country, millions of children in schools, veterans returning from military service and unemployed adults feel the same way. They only need our representatives in government to lend a hand. What they will give back will be tenfold.
Reggie Jean is president of the New England Educational Opportunity Association.
Bootstraps: Federal Trio Programs, if Funded, Could Help Close Income Gap
by Reggie Jean
September 5, 2011
I realized how poor my family was when I was a high school senior. While filling out a financial aid form to go to college, I looked at my mom’s tax return to see how much she made. I asked her if it was a mistake. It wasn’t. She made $11,000 a year to support a family of four. Today I make four times as much as my mom did mainly because of one reason. Not dogged ingenuity or self-determination. My mom has more of those traits than I do. The great equalizer for me was a college education. Regretfully, because of some potential cuts, fewer New Englanders will have a chance at a degree.
According to a new study by University of Massachusetts economists, since 1979, the chasm between the rich and the poor has grown in Massachusetts. Across the nation, research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation found that child poverty increased in 38 states from 2000 to 2009 (including Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island). As a result, 14.7 million children, or 20% of all children under age 18, were poor in 2009. In addition, the current recession has increased the overall number of Americans living in poverty by 18% since 2000.
The good news is that since 1964, our government has had two successful programs that have helped Americans from low-income and first-generation college backgrounds (whose parents never enrolled in higher education) prepare for and earn their college degrees, helping to stop the cycle of poverty. The federally funded TRIO programs (Upward Bound, Veterans Upward Bound, Math-Science Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search, Student Support Services, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program, and Educational Opportunity Centers) and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR-UP), serve more than 50,000 low-income, first-generation college students and disabled individuals throughout New England.
The TRIO and GEAR UP programs have had millions of successful participants, including many with New England ties, like University of Massachusetts Boston Chancellor Keith Motley; astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz; Vice President at Spelman College Arlene Wesley Cash; Oscar-nominated actress Viola Davis; basketball coach and Olympic medalist Patrick Ewing; and CNN Commentator Steve Perry. The programs provide college preparation and awareness, working with individuals from middle school through adulthood. Usually located on college campuses, more than 125 of these federally funded programs operate in New England, for example, at Boston University, Bowdoin College, MIT, the Community College of Rhode Island and the universities of Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Regretfully, although these successful federal programs only had funding to serve about 10% of the eligible population, they have faced budget challenges this year. As a result of across-the-board domestic spending cuts of the continuing resolution passed by Congress in May, the president and Congress cut TRIO and GEAR UP by 3%. Instantly, about 75,000 low-income students across the nation lost a chance at a college degree. The debt ceiling package may cut these effective programs even more.
My mom use to tell me, “You pay now or you pay later.” The typical college graduate working full-time paid over 82% more in total federal, state and local taxes than the typical high school graduate. College graduates are also healthier, vote more often and are less likely to be unemployed. The government can chose to invest now or pay much more later.
President Obama and Congress talk about the importance of an educated America, setting a goal to be No. 1 in the world in higher education degree attainment by 2020. However, due to recent cuts, the resources that the poor have have decreased while the preparation needed to go to and be successful in college has gotten more complicated and expensive. With only the privileged going to college, we will never reverse the poverty trend or get close to reaching the 2020 goal. But we do know what works. According to the U.S. Department of Education, students who have participated in TRIO’s Student Support Services program are more than three times as likely to earn a bachelor’s degree compared with their peers who received a Pell Grant without TRIO services. TRIO is a way to make good on the investment of Pell.
There used to be a time when people didn’t have to go to college to become successful. Society has changed. It’s hard to pick yourself up by the boot straps if you have no shoes. Postsecondary education is the only systematic way out of poverty.
By maintaining and increasing funding for these programs, congress and the “super committee” will take real action in increasing college graduation rates, shrinking the divide between the rich and the poor, while also creating jobs. When I was in high school I knew that only a college education would help my family get out of poverty. Around the country, millions of children in schools, veterans returning from military service and unemployed adults feel the same way. They only need our representatives in government to lend a hand. What they will give back will be tenfold.
Reggie Jean is president of the New England Educational Opportunity Association.
Tags: Annie E. Casey Foundation, child poverty, Educational Opportunity Centers, Educational Talent Search, New England Educational Opportunity Association, rich and poor, Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program, Student Support Services, TRIO, Upward Bound
10 Responses to “Bootstraps: Federal Trio Programs, if Funded, Could Help Close Income Gap”
The story and stats for New England can certainly ring loud and true for the other nine regions that host TRIO and GEAR UP Programs, where thousands of first-generation college, low-income, and disabled individuals need support services to access and succeed in post-secondary education. Nationally, these individuals have lost such services due to budget cuts. Likewise there are thousands of the Programs' successful alumni,many on the national stage, who have escaped their disadvantaged circumstances because of the TRIO Programs.
The proven record of TRIO Programs successfully preparing students for graduation and positively impacting the lives of disadvataged individuals is no secret to congressional representatives; they hear about it regularly. The success of TRIO should encourage the Administration and Congress to more adequately fund the Programs, which would also advance the Administration's goal of increased graduation numbers by 2020. It's worth repeating...TRIO Works!
Bravo! This article says it clearly...without the support of Pell and TRIO, HAND-IN-HAND, more students will succumb to the already high attrition rate of college students. The money (Pell), without the support (TRIO), does not make sense. That's akin to giving your child money to buy a car without teaching him to drive. I certainly hope Congress and the Administration will look at TRIO and Gear-Up stats and keep the programs strong by maintaining and increasing funds for them. The students are worth it and do appreciate it.
Reggie Jean's mother was right: "Pay now, or pay later." On an individual and family basis, the benefits of higher education for earning power, greater productivity and greater financial contribution to society through taxes are well-documented. The "downside" of that picture is also stark—those without education not only have lives of deprivation, so do their children, and they will draw in the resources of society through social services, corrections and worse.
Beyond that, it is also true that widening gaps between the most affluent and the poor is a marker for societies that are destabilizing. That gap has been growing at a worrisome pace here in the U.S. and this does not bode well for our future.
In our own self-interest, to ensure a healthy and productive nation, there is no investment that pays greater dividends than education. We must protect funding that allows those of few means to access the educational ladder to greater economic security for themselves and their families.
Kathleen Schatzberg, President
Cape Cod Community College
Reggie Jean has captured it all in his article! Without Upward Bound, I was destined to follow in the footsteps of generations of high school dropouts or career Serviceman. Upward Bound allowed me to realize my potential, and to reach for the previously unattainable goals in front of me. As the first member of my family to go to college, I watched the pride on my normally stoic father's face, as he drove from Maine to Ohio to see me graduate. Without PELL and TRIO I would not have been able to give him that pleasure. He returned to the Maine woods, and I to social services, spreading the same message EVERY day to every family I meet: You can do it, and there are programs to help you. TRIO is such a program! Don't let it die!
I am a recent graduate of TRIO. I never thought a college education was possible. All my life all I ever knew was poverty and worrying about where my next meal would come from. As a child, I knew I would always be on welfare or work at a fast-food restaurant. Because that is what my mother told me. Teachers also told me I did not have what it took to have a successful career. I was put on the work program working at a fast-food restaurant.
At the age of 41 years old, I found out about SSS/TRIO and decided to check it out. I was accepted and started college with much apprehension. I was supported and quickly was succeeding. I was not only a great student, I was an honor student. I became involved on campus as well as in my community.
When I graduated this spring I had a GPA of 3.65 and had completed the honors program. I have two degrees: an AA in Liberal Arts as well as an AS in Criminal Justice. It is important to note I am the first from my great-grandparents down to have completed a college degree. That is huge since I also have five other siblings.
I am now working towards my BA in Criminal Justice and am interning at the local police department. Issues I am working on are Youth Homelessness and Domestic Violence. I talk to the youth and the victims about SSS/TRIO and yet I am concerned that it is not being funded.
I agree If we do not pay now we will pay more later. Data has shown that individuals that live in poverty are at a higher risk of committing crimes as well as medical issues. We need to make sure everyone has the opportunity to be the best they can be and to shine.
Today, my son is now a student in the TRIO program as the cycle of poverty has been broken. The important note here is that my son has a disability and no one believed in him. Yet, I do and more important, TRIO does and he is succeeding one step at a time.
I am in hopes this will only illustrate how important TRIO and the other programs are. Please do not take away a program that allows individuals to actually have a dream and allows them to be successful.
This is very powerful and inspiring article Reggie. At Mount Wachusett Community College in North Central Massachusetts alone, over 3,800 students benefit from TRIO and GEAR UP each year and many more benefit from programs that grew out of them such as our annual Junior Symposium and Leadership Conference. With a population that is increasingly low income and first generation, it is short sighted and dangerous to discontinue one of the few educational opportunity programs proven to be successful in assisting families out of poverty. Recent graduates of our programs include a campus police officer, executive director of a local nonprofit agency, graduate school attendees and many, many more success stories such as these. If our nation wants to succeed globally, we need to think strategically about educating all of our students, not just the select few with them means and tools necessary to get into, and through, higher education. And this starts locally. Without TRIO and GEAR UP, I know our community would not be as healthy and viable as it is and our schools and students would feel a tremendous loss.
Reggie's article is an excellent and moving synopsis of the situation faced by TRIO and Gear Up programs today. But it's not just the programs that are at risk; nor just the students who will not be served if there are further cuts or programs are eliminated. Beyond that our nation itself will be harmed if these many thousands of students do not realize their potential through higher education.
This past summer, the University of New Hampshire Upward Bound program hosted a panel of six former TRIO students. All came from poor families. All were in danger of either not graduating high school or not going on to college. And all attributed their current achievements to their involvement with TRIO. And what achievements they are! Two teach at UNH, one in English, the other in Chemistry. A third is a computer systems engineer at UNH. One was a state legislator and is now a middle school principal. One is working on an MA in Math Education and taught for Upward Bound this summer. And the last panelist is studying diet and nutrition at UNH and is hoping to compete in track and field at the next Olympics.
All spoke passionately about the role TRIO played in their education and their lives. But, in addition, they themselves are reaching out to thousands of others through the careers that higher education and TRIO made possible. Those who argue for budget cuts to educational opportunity programs offer a false dichotomy between throwing tax dollars at programs we can't afford or protecting our nation through fiscal responsibility. Ultimately we can only protect our nation through education. Not only does educational opportunity create a resourceful, contributing citizenry, but it gives each child so served a stake in the health and well-being of the nation.
The recent rioting and looting in London by disaffected youth shows all too well what happens when young people are uneducated and see no future for themselves or their families. Compare them to the students served by TRIO and Gear Up programs: students who believe so deeply in a nation that believed enough in them to help them rise up out of poverty and achieve their dreams. Educational opportunity is at the very heart of the American vision. If we turn our back on it, we give up an essential part of our national identity. Ultimately, we cannot afford not to educate all of our children.
I participated in Upward Bound in Vermont in the early 1990s. I was in a foster home and no one in my family had ever gone to college. I wouldn't have gone to college without Upward Bound. The cost, courage, and self-esteem it would take were almost too much. I never would have stayed in college without Upward Bound. The financial challenge I faced to stay in college seemed so vast that I almost gave up repeatedly. My UB people kept me in the game with constant encouragement and guided assistance through the murky waters of financial aid. It was a tough road, but I graduated with a BA in Business Management and am now a Human Resources professional making a little over $50,000 annually and, I'm happy to say, I'm still in touch with my Upward Bound mentors. I know there are many programs the government supports that suffer dearly when that support is decreased or eliminated. I'm really glad the support was there for me because it has broken the cycle for my family. My husband and I started a 529 for my daughter within a month after her birth. She will not have to face the same struggles I did and I'm so thankful for that.
I participant in the SSS-TRIO program in college and I am thankful for that opportunity. Yet we serve only 10% of the population that is eligible. I hope in the future this program is still there to help others in need. TRIO works! Please let others know how you feel about TRIO programs.
Karen, I was the first woman in my immediate and extended family to attend college too. I worked paying by the semester and using student loans once I started my bachelors program.
It took me ten years to complete an Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Geology in that fashion.
The student loans I took out have been repaid without government assistance.
I too experience a high degree of satisfaction and yes, self esteem in my achievement which is the byproduct of taking education or any other task to fruition.