fective. At Upward Bound we provided individual tutoring, personal counseling, technology training, literacy development, SAT preparation, mentoring, and other intangible assistance to our kids and their communities. The director of an Upward Bound program I used to work for had been a participant in the very same Upward Bound program she was directing. We helped kids go to college, plain and simple.
The irony of potentially cutting Upward Bound and Talent Search programs lies in the rhetoric of the Bush administration itself, which claims that it wants to close achievement gaps and help poor, working-class students of color gain increased access to education. Even the DOE budget press release headline reads, "President's FY 2006 Budget Focuses Resources on Students Who Need Them the Most." Upward Bound and Talent Search are two programs that target the exact students that Bush and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act supposedly want to help. Cutting them would mean focusing resources away from those who need them most.
Upward Bound and Talent Search are only some of the good programs the Bush administration has placed on the chopping block. The DOE proposes cutting the following programs (all dollars are in millions):
Alcohol Abuse Reduction programs in high schools: $32.7
Even Start programs that support "family literacy" and early childhood education in low- income communities: $225.1
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEARUP) that help low-income elementary and secondary school students prepare for college: $306.5
National Writing Project, which supports K-16 teacher training in effective writing and literacy practices: $20.3
Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities State Grants: $437.4
School Dropout Prevention: $4.9
Smaller Learning Communities, programs that support the breaking up of large, comprehensive high schools into smaller school-within-a-school organization: $94.5
State Grants for Incarcerated Youth Offenders: $21.8
Literacy Programs for Prisoners: $5.0
Foreign Language Assistance: $17.9
Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program, which helps provide low-income students of color with support to access and complete law school: $3.0
Women's Educational Equity: $3.0
Federal Perkins Loans : $66.1
And this is just a partial list. There are other proposed cuts as well, ones that seem particularly paradoxical in the wake of the NCLB's stated commitment to quality education. For instance, even with all the focus on developing and maintaining a qualified teacher in every classroom, the administration wants to cut "Teacher Quality Enhance-ment" monies to save $68.3 million.
Just for perspective, I compared some of these proposed program cuts to the federal budget request for weapons systems for fiscal year 2006. I found that the $94.5 million saved by cutting Smaller Learning Communities programs will just about pay for exactly one of the 38 requested F/A-18 jet fighters. Cutting GearUp will almost pay for a single C-17 Transport Aircraft, and the combined cuts of Upward Bound, Talent Search, Even Start, and Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (a little over $1 billion total) will buy a little less than one half of a federally requested SSN-774 "Virginia" Attack Submarine. I could go on, but I'll stop before my head explodes.
The DOE says many of the proposed cuts are because the programs are redundant with existing or new programs. So Teacher Quality Enhance-ment, School Dropout Prevention, and Alcohol Abuse and Reduction programs, for instance, will supposedly now be taken care of by existing NCLB programs and grants. The feds have deemed others, like Upward Bound, Talent Search, GearUp, and the National Writing project as "ineffective" or only "partially effective," so they too will go.
The Bush administration clearly thinks too much money is being spent on education programs, particularly those that target low-income students and students of color. Even worse, they think NCLB funding is supposed to make up for the loss of these programs.
Once again, educators 