Upward Bound Struggle Not Reported Correctly
By now you’ve all heard the funding for Upward Bound- a college- prep program aimed at low income & rural students- has been cut.
This may be upsetting for administrators and volunteers of the program, and probably even those students who’ve made benefit from participation in it, but this isn’t a major blow to the education system as we know it; it simply means we need to better organize our local education system.
And make no mistake, this isn’t a state issue: it’s a federal one.
According to the U.S. Department of Education website, funding for Upward Bound is available. The current program director, Henry Wojnicki, says the program has appealed the denial, and it could take as long as six months for a final determination.
In a phone interview on Thursday, Wojnicki also said only 15- 20 students who participate in the program are actually from Portage County. The rest of the 62 students booked for this summer’s program come from 6 other counties.
But the money is there- in 2011, $254 million was allocated to various nation-wide Upward Bound programs in 2011, and some $325 million was earmarked this year, with various Wisconsin programs awarded over $3.8 million.
Our local program is one of 13 in the state that was turned down for grant money. In other words, it was not “cut”. The grant application was simply turned down.
No one knows why just yet- not even the program director.
Grant money is never automatic. For this reason, it should never be relied upon to stay afloat. Grants are awarded based on merit, past performance and projections. Personal relationships can carry weight, but in a system as expansive as the U.S. Department of Education, are unlikely to call for an arbitrary denial of 13 Upward Bound programs.
We could bitch about the grant denial all day, but it wouldn’t do any good. We need to reorganize how we work with kids who would otherwise be enrolled in the Upward Bound program. Couldn’t they be integrated into a summer school program? Couldn’t we bring Big Bothers, Big Sisters or Boys & Girls Club or a local ROTC program into the mix to help pick up slack?
And what about involvement by our local school district?
Every kid deserves the opportunities to perform better in school and attend college. Remembering that “opportunity” does not mean “promised results”, local folks like you need to become a little more vocal about our local district’s spending.
In the 06-07 school year, our district had a total revenue of had 7,330 students enrolled, and spent some $11 million on instructional staff, and nearly $15 million on administration.
This year’s show budget shows we have 7,528 students in the district. According to the current budget, we’re paying nearly $80 million in salaries and benefits.
Our monetary needs have certainly skyrocketed for whatever reason, but after all $77,695,262 of our bills are paid out, our district still has $10,743,170 left in the kitty.
Henry Wojnicki says the Upward Bound program needs about $150k to run through September this year.
A restructuring on the school district’s part could easily accommodate the Upward Bound students- at least the local students- into a similar summer program, even broadening its reach by inviting more than just 15-20 local junior high & high school students to participate.
I’m willing to bet there are plenty of high- performing, licensed teachers in our district willing to volunteer their time to such a worthy project.