Feds want schools to contribute to, then fully fund GEAR-UP

GUILFORD – News that schools will have to contribute a portion – and eventually the full costs – for a program now funded by the federal government that targets the aspirations of low-income students has not been well received by some educators.

Nearly 3,510 students in grades seven through 12 from about 50 schools around the state participate in the successful Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program, or GEAR-UP, offered through a five-year federal grant.

The program is designed to increase the number of low-income students who enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Students and their families are provided with comprehensive support services, including enhanced curricular offerings and mentoring programs, as well as scholarships.

That grant expires this year, and state officials have submitted an application to the federal government for another five-year grant in the amount of $18,600,672 that is expected to be funded because of Maine’s low social scale, according to David Stockford, Maine director of GEAR-UP.

The difference in this grant cycle is that participating schools are expected to contribute 20 percent of the program costs for the second and ensuing years until the schools fund the entire program, he said.

Federal officials want schools to play a role in the program’s sustainability, according to Stockford. This move also would free funds through the grant to allow the state to provide more professional development for the program’s advisers and to increase the scholarship pool, he said Monday.

Some school officials have balked at the funding change and advised Stockford that with local budgets so tight, they would be forced to eliminate the GEAR-UP Program.

Stockford said he has received a handful of complaints from school officials.

“If the funding is not there, then most likely the program would not be offered here,” Shannon Micklus, GEAR-UP adviser in Union 102 in the Machias area, said this week.

Teachers who support the program and who have seen a large increase in the number of graduating seniors attending postsecondary education have written letters to local representatives asking for their help, she said.

“I really believe if they [student participants] hadn’t had the GEAR-UP program to help them, they wouldn’t be where they are today,” Micklus said.

SAD 4 Superintendent Paul Stearns of Guilford said this week that before his district commits to a new funding program cycle, he wants to see the specific written criteria and expectations. He said he sent a letter to Stockford on April 6 asking for that information but has not yet received a reply.

“I think it’s [GEAR-UP] been beneficial to students for sure,” Stearns said. Enough so, should his district opt out of the program for lack of funds, some of the services will be integrated into the high school’s new Career Prep program, he said.