Ohio University had announced earlier that there’d be no federal funding for Upward Bound, a program to help low-income and first-generation college students. In a rare instance of good news, they’ve decided to fund it themselves.
To be clear, the Department of Education hasn’t defunded Upward Bound in general; they just denied Ohio University’s application, among 40 others. That said, Trump’s budget does scale back on the program, so we may see more denied applications in the future.
Which is pretty awful, since there’s evidence that Upward Bound is extremely effective at preparing students for college. Sure, there remain questions about the value of a college degree, the weight of student loans, and whether this could actually affect structural inequality, but so long as we’re still working in the system, we’re better off with Upward Bound.
So OU’s decision to fund the program itself, announced by new president Duane Nellis, is genuinely cool. Here’s hoping that other schools whose applications for funding were denied will do the same.
(Photo courtesy of Fusion of Horizons.)

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