Fifteen U.S. senators are asking the Department of Education inspector general to review recent grant awards under two of the federal government’s TRIO college support programs, claiming that departmental errors in the evaluations of existing grantees’ applications caused some college-access programs to lose continued funding.
Some applicants for new Talent Search and Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) grants did not receive enough credit for “prior experience” in the program, the senators said in an Oct. 2 letter to John Higgins Jr., education inspector general. As applicants with prior grants, they may not have received appropriate credit for serving students as well as for the high school graduation and college enrollment of past participants.
“We are deeply concerned about the effect of these apparent mistakes on low-income youth who are in the greatest need of assistance,” the senators wrote. Those signing the letter include a cross-section of Republicans and Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who is leading most Democratic polls for the 2008 presidential election, and Sens. Dianne Feinstein, DCalif.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; and Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
Catherine Grant, a spokeswoman for the inspector general, confirmed that her office had received the letter but would not comment further. The department referred all press inquiries to the office of the inspector general.
Under the prior experience rules, an applicant can receive up to 15 points based on their performance under a previous grant, says Susan Trebach, spokeswoman for the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE), a Washington, D.C. group that represents many Talent Search and other TRIO programs.
After reviewing grant information provided by the department under the Freedom of Information Act, the COE found errors in the scoring of some proposals. “We felt there were some questionable calculations,” Trebach says.
