“When you watch the video, it’s easier to see why TRIO survives. These programs do work. They change lives,” Trebach says. “And when people see that,” they open their hearts and their wallets. Indeed, one of the corporate sponsors of the COE conference, USA Funds, is funding the nationwide distribution of the video.
But Mitchem fears for the future in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Voices are already warning that “we’ve got to be careful — we’ve already got a deficit and we can’t raise taxes so, when the bill comes due for Katrina, we’ve got to find some offsets. And where do offsets come from? They come from domestic discretionary spending. And what is domestic discretionary spending. Usually, it’s educational spending. So the TRIO programs are supposed to be at level funding — we lost our cost of living adjustment. And now, there’s the threat that we’re going to be reduced even more in the face of this domestic crisis. So the victims will lose a tool that can lift them out of vulnerability to just such a tragedy as Katrina,” he says. “The victims will be victimized twice.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
