Trump plan to cut programs that get poor kids into college makes no sense
Clearly, the Trump administration's effort to eliminate Upward Bound, Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate and other programs known by the acronym of TRIO, to trim 15% from federal education spending to allow for generous tax cuts to billionaires is not only short-sighted but also dumb.
How can they justify erasing programs that help get poor students into college, where they will move up the economic ladder and bring their families along with them?
They can't.
But Russell T. Vought, executive director of the president's Office of Management and Budget, gave it a try.
Opinion
'TRIO and GEAR UP are a relic of the past when financial incentives were needed to motivate Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to engage with low-income students and increase access,' Vought said in a May 2 letter to Sen. Susan Collins in which he outlined President Donald Trump's recommendations on discretionary spending for 2026.
'Today, the pendulum has swung and access to college is not the obstacle it was for students of limited means,' said Vought, who added that institutions of higher education should fund those programs rather than engaging in woke ideology with federal taxpayer subsidies.'
There are seven TRIO programs, each designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. They range from Veterans Upward Bound to Educational Opportunity Centers to Educational Talent Search.
I wish some of them had been in place when I was graduating from Delano High School, where I never had a counselor point me toward college or explain how to fill out college applications.
Christopher Navas, an 18-year-old student at Riverdale High, is more fortunate. The Fresno State-bound Navas, who plans to major in mechanical engineering, is the second-youngest of seven children of a farm irrigation manager and a merchandiser.
'I'm so grateful that I took the risk to join ETS (Fresno State Educational Talent Search) because this simple program that was supposed to motivate students to pursue a higher education impacted my life significantly,' said Navas at Wednesday's ceremony honoring 23 TRIO graduates at his school.
Navas said he was ambivalent about college until a summer program in his sophomore year introduced him to college majors and helped him establish relationships with college staff. A trip to Disneyland remains a highlight.
Once in the program, Navas became more active in school, joining the baseball team and clubs and getting 'out of his comfort zone.'
Olga Núñez, director of the Educational Talent Search at Fresno State, said 94% of the 680 high school students with 62% of all California students.
The program gets $370,000 of federal funds for a staff of two counselors, an administrative assistant and Núñez. When money is available, student assistants are hired.
The return on investment is impressive: 91% graduate with the requirements to get into college (vs. a 45.3% state average); and 91% graduate from high school (vs. 52.7% average at Riverdale High, 48.5% at Mendota High).
'They need to want to go to college,' said Núñez, who stressed her team can't promote students to go to Fresno State. 'Maybe they don't know where, or what major, but we want to increase high school graduation rates and college enrollment rates.'
This TRIO program is critical because sometimes working-class parents with no college experience don't know how to prepare their children for college. Any help parents can get is sorely needed.
According to the Sacramento-based Public Policy Institute of California, high school students from the San Joaquín Valley are less likely to attend and graduate from college than their counterparts in the rest of the state. Only 26% of ninth graders in the region are on a path to earn a bachelor's degree (vs. 35% statewide), and only 57% of high school graduates attend public or nonprofit colleges (vs. 65% statewide).
Núñez was among those notified earlier this month about the Trump administration's desire to cut funding. TRIO programs are required to submit annual progress reports to remain eligible for 5-year grants. Núñez is preparing to submit another grant for the cycle starting in the 2026-27 school year.
A May 7 webinar organized by the Council for Opportunity in Education ran out of space after organizers were flooded by more than 5,000 requests. A follow-up session is scheduled for May 22 for TRIO educators.
Organizers want to remain nonpartisan because the TRIO program has gotten support from both Republicans and Democrats. Of more than 200 representatives who have signed a letter of support for TRIO for the 2026 fiscal year, only 63 are Democrats.
The Fresno State TRIO programs are among 3,500 at more than 1,000 colleges and universities in the country. They help 870,000 students through individualized counseling, advising and other services.
The letter explains why TRIO works: 'Since their inception in 1964, TRIO programs have produced over 6 million college graduates. Research demonstrates that college graduates have lower rates of unemployment, pay more in federal taxes, and earn a million dollars more throughout their working lives than non-college graduates.'
What is so difficult to understand that eliminating TRIO funding is bad for the country? It seems like Trump and his advisors need some education.
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CNN
13 hours ago
- CNN
These city leaders want to expand HBCUs beyond the South. Here's why they say it's critical as DEI is under attack
Kei'Yanii Dawson dreams of attending a historically Black college where she can take classes and engage in campus life with more students who look like her. But Dawson, a junior at a majority-White private high school in San Francisco, said that would likely mean going to school far from home and taking on more debt for housing and out-of-state tuition. However, a growing movement to expand the presence of HBCUs into more communities outside the South could soon give students like Dawson easier access to a Black college. Officials in cities such as Boston and San Francisco say they are actively working to bring satellite campuses of HBCUs to their communities, hoping to strengthen the pipeline for Black students to pursue higher education and to grow and diversify their local economies. 'I feel like if there was a satellite (HBCU) here in San Francisco, it would just be so much easier,' Dawson said. 'An education coming to me instead of me going so far, there's definitely more benefits from that, money-wise.' Advocates for HBCUs insist these proposals are critical as the Trump administration targets diversity, equity and inclusion programs at predominantly White institutions, such as Harvard University, and as Black students seek schools where they feel included and celebrated. President Donald Trump has decried DEI initiatives as 'illegal and immoral discrimination.' Earlier this year, the Trump administration proposed a 2026 fiscal year budget that would cut $64 million in funding for Howard University, the nation's only federally chartered HBCU. The National Institutes of Health also canceled a $16.3 million grant for Florida A&M University's pharmacy school as part of Trump's effort to end DEI programs. US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher on Thursday struck down two administration actions that threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions with DEI programs, ruling the Education Department violated the law, according to The Associated Press. Despite his administration's attacks on DEI, Trump signed an executive order in April supporting HBCUs. 'This order will continue the work begun during my first Administration to elevate the value and impact of our Nation's HBCUs as beacons of educational excellence and economic opportunity that serve as some of the best cultivators of tomorrow's leaders in business, government, academia, and the military,' it read. HBCUs were first established in the mid to late 1800s, when legal segregation in the South prevented Black students from enrolling in existing colleges and schools in the North imposed quotas on the number of Black students who could attend. During this period, HBCUs became the primary means of providing a college education to Black people. Today, the majority of HBCUs are located in the South. Keith Lezama, CEO and founder of Building Bridges Education — a nonprofit dedicated to providing New England students with access and pathways to HBCUs — said he supports the expansion of Black colleges. He said many Black families in communities without HBCUs are not aware of their impact. HBCUs 'are a movement that has allowed access when access wasn't allowed,' Lezama said. 'A movement that instills a sense of pride, resilience that produces amazing leaders in our communities and across the world. To know many of these institutions do this without the same resources (as predominantly White colleges), is something that can be seen as a national model of what excellence looks like in education.' In June, Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell filed a hearing order proposing the establishment of an HBCU satellite campus in Boston. He said during a June 25 city council meeting that Boston is known for being a college town, 'but we do not have a single HBCU.' The closest HBCUs to Boston are Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Lincoln University, both more than 300 miles away. HBCUs, Worrell said, are known for producing a higher percentage of low-income, first-generation Black college graduates than majority-White institutions. 'If we are serious about building a diverse workforce here in Boston in tech, health care, education, government, then we need to be just as serious about the pipelines that people get here,' Worrell said. Establishing a satellite campus is a lengthy process that could take years to complete, advocates say. Worrell said it is not yet clear if or when the HBCU would open in Boston, and officials have not yet decided which school the city will partner with. Boston is hosting a listening session on August 26 to allow community members to share their thoughts on what they want to see in a satellite campus, he said. Worrell will consider their feedback in his proposal for the school. He also hopes to work with HBCUs on an initiative that would allow students at local institutions to transfer credits to the satellite school when it opens. Officials from Huston-Tillotson University, a small private HBCU in Austin, Texas, say they are also working to establish an off-campus instructional site in San Diego. California has the largest out-of-state student enrollment at Huston-Tillotson, said Archibald Vanderpuye, the university's provost and vice president of academic affairs. The school is located about 1,300 miles from San Diego. 'Our partners are looking at ways to increase access to and completion of college degrees among underrepresented minority students by providing them with meaningful HBCU experiences,' Beverly Downing, associate provost at Huston-Tillotson University, said in a statement. Downing said there is growing interest among students and families in expanding the school to California. 'We started getting a lot of calls and getting requests for a presence there so that the students would have a choice of whether to come out to Texas or to take courses (in California),' Downing said. The university plans to launch the off-campus instructional site in San Diego with a business administration program in spring 2026, Downing said. Plans for the San Diego location are underway and the school is required to obtain numerous approvals, including for the off-campus instructional site plan and accreditation, Downing said. In San Francisco, officials are also in active discussions about bringing an HBCU satellite campus to the city, Charles Lutvak, spokesperson for Mayor Daniel Lurie, said. Lutvak said he was unable to provide details on a timeline or which Black colleges are in discussions with city leaders. The conversations follow the city's launch of the Black 2 San Francisco initiative last year, which seeks to 'create a satellite campus partnership with several HBCUs, including a physical location in San Francisco, and a full suite of academic and professional programming.' Former Mayor London Breed said last year that an HBCU campus in San Francisco would 'boost our downtown and our economy, while bringing new minds and ideas to grow within our world-renowned culture of innovation.' Harry Williams, president and CEO of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, said developing satellite locations for HBCUs across the country will help increase the number of Black Americans in the middle class. HBCUs produce 70% of Black doctors and dentists, 50% of Black engineers and 35% of Black attorneys, according to the United Negro College Fund. Williams said HBCUs have higher retention and graduation rates among Black students. Black students can also experience a sense of belonging and culture at HBCUs that they may not find at predominantly White institutions, where DEI and affirmative action are under attack, Williams said. 'Being in a place where you are wanted, that's the key,' he said. 'These institutions were created for African Americans.' Some people, however, oppose expanding HBCUs to other communities. 'You want to attend an HBCU, then move to a city where the school history and culture already exist,' one user posted on X. 'Our resources are stretched enough. Plus, our cities depend on the migration of students from the North.' 'One of the lures of HBCUs is the historical part and putting a satellite campus somewhere random disconnects that,' another user posted on X. 'Especially in Boston.' Brandon Graham, founder and CEO of Our HBCUs Matter Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to educational programming for high school and HBCU students, said he believes it will be challenging for satellite campuses to replicate the connections and experiences students receive on an HBCU's main campus. However, he said there are creative ways to achieve this. HBCUs must 'ensure that you cultivate programmatic models and bring in alumni for those folks who are local to then be able to share and cultivate that synergy that you initially get on an HBCU campus,' said Graham, a graduate of both Clark Atlanta University and Tennessee State University. Graham said he is confident that HBCUs have the connections and resources to expand their reach to communities across the country, just as predominantly White institutions have done. 'It will have positive effects on the institutional educational branding, on its financials, as well as on its ability to cultivate a very diverse alumni base across the country,' Graham said. 'This next level of satellite campuses is going to diversify and transform the way an HBCU education can be provided.'
The Intercept
2 days ago
- The Intercept
Trump Is Trying to Make It Easier to Evict People From Public Housing
President Donald Trump is preparing to revoke eviction protections for people living in federal public housing and project-based rental assistance programs — increasing the risk for millions of Americans to fall into homelessness. Last week, the Trump administration posted on the Office of Management and Budget's website that it is reviewing a new rule eliminating a Housing and Urban Development Department requirement that property owners and public housing agencies provide a 30-day eviction notice for people they intend to kick out of certain types of federally subsidized housing for lack of payment. If the rule change takes effect, public housing tenants could receive as little as 14 days of notice prior to eviction proceedings beginning, and in some jurisdictions, people in project-based rental assistance programs could receive no notice at all before formal eviction procedures begin. The 30-day notice rule was drafted during the Biden administration to give tenants facing eviction for nonpayment time to pay the amount due to stop the eviction or secure new housing. It requires property owners and public housing authorities to give tenants a month's notice in writing, and mandates that property managers include a monthly breakdown of overdue rent charges, the deadline for paying overdue rent, and instructions on how the tenant can pay their fees. The 30-day notice rule only took effect in January, but housing experts say that it has already made a significant difference for people facing eviction. Experts told The Intercept that should the Trump administration move ahead with the rule change, millions of people could be at risk of losing their housing to benefit Trump's corporate allies. 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The rule still has to be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget, but it could go into effect swiftly post-review. That means tenants are going to feel the consequences sooner. 'This is going to be a lot trickier for everyone on the ground to make sure that people understand what can and cannot happen if they find themselves in that situation of facing eviction,' said Acosta. Tran-Leung said that this is a part of a larger push from corporate landlords who have lobbied the Trump administration to reduce eviction protections for tenants. 'Housing providers right now are looking for ways to speed up the eviction process to make it easier to get tenants out,' she said. Trump and other Republicans ran a platform of making America more affordable, but in practice they've spent the months since the election doing the opposite, said Acosta. 'You have them then pushing policies like this, where it's giving people less time to just get things together in the event of an eviction, while they're also pushing for major cuts in all of these different rental assistance programs that make housing more affordable,' said Acosta. 'You just have all of these things piling up, particularly on people with low incomes, just completely contradictory to what they are trying to message.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
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Nadler blasts Columbia for ‘outrageous and embarrassing' settlement with Trump administration
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday condemned Columbia University's settlement with the Trump administration as 'outrageous and embarrassing' and accused the school of giving in to the government's pressure campaign against higher education. 'I am deeply disappointed by reports of Columbia University's outrageous and embarrassing $200 million capitulation to the Trump Administration's repugnant extortion campaign,' Nadler, a Columbia alumnus whose district borders the school, said in a statement on the social platform X. '[M]y alma mater has allowed a once highly-respected institution to succumb to the Trump Administration's coercive and exploitative tactics,' Nadler added. 'Columbia has effectively waived the white flag of surrender in its battle at the heart of the Trump Administration's war on higher education and academic freedom.' The Trump administration and Columbia University on Monday announced a settlement, whereby the Ivy League institution agreed to pay $221 million to restore the more than $400 million in federal funding that was cut off by the administration. In cutting off Columbia's funding, the Trump administration originally cited alleged inaction on antisemitism, though Education Secretary Linda McMahon pointed to more ideological motives. 'This is a monumental victory for conservatives who wanted to do things on these elite campuses for a long time because we had such far left-leaning professors,' McMahon said on Fox Business Network. The university, which saw some of the nation's most active pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations amid the war in Gaza, did not have to admit to wrongdoing as part of the deal. Nadler stressed the need for Columbia to do more to protect Jewish students on campus, but he said the latest settlement would do nothing to help those students. 'While Columbia needs to do a better job at protecting its students against antisemitism on campus, this disgraceful and humiliating action will not, in anyway, improve the situation on campus for Jewish students,' Nadler said. 'Columbia's students, faculty, staff, and larger community deserve better than this cowardly decision,' he added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
