TRIO Serves More than 4,500 Secondary, Post-Secondary, and Adult Students in North Dakota

BISMARCK, N.D. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp and 15 other U.S. senators demanded that U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos stop preventing first-generation college students — including over 4,500 TRIO participants in North Dakota — from getting an affordable education.

In March, Congress passed a funding bill that included a six percent increase in authorized funding for TRIO programs, which provide low-income, first-generation, or disabled students with the support, resources, and guidance they need to successfully graduate from high school, enroll in a college or university, and earn a degree. This increase, which amounted to $60 million, could be distributed among the 3,100 local TRIO programs that currently assist more than 800,000 students nationwide and over 4,500 North Dakotans.

Instead, Secretary DeVos announced she would be distributing less than half of the additional funding to current TRIO grant recipients. The rest of the funding would be allocated through an intensive and overly competitive application process open to only a fraction of current grant recipients.

“Receiving a high-quality education can make all the difference in a young person’s life, particularly for students in our state’s rural, tribal, or underserved communities. A degree from a two-year or four-year institution can set them on a path they never thought possible, and their education can lead them to well-paid employment and the financial security to take care of themselves and their families. That’s why Secretary DeVos should be supporting successful programs like those under TRIO— not picking winners and losers by withholding approved funding from some TRIO grantees and putting others through a burdensome application process,” said Heitkamp. “A bipartisan majority of Congress approved an increase to support all TRIO programs equally, so there’s absolutely no reason why Secretary DeVos should make it harder for North Dakota’s first-generation and low-income college students to receive the education they want to pursue.”

TRIO grant recipients already go through a highly competitive application process every five years to receive funding. In a letter to Secretary DeVos, Heitkamp and the group of senators said that requiring these thoroughly vetted recipients to go through additional bureaucratic hoops in order to receive Congressionally-mandated funding is a waste of time, energy, and resources. Click here to read the full letter.

The letter was also signed by U.S. Senators Jon Tester (D-MT), Joe Manchin (D-WV.), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Angus King (I-ME), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).

Heitkamp is a member of the Senate TRIO Caucus.

Background

Heitkamp has continued to push for new ways to make college more affordable and accessible for all North Dakota students. Last week, Heitkamp introduced a bill to encourage more young men and women in rural America to enter public service professions by waiving interest on their federal student loans and expanding federal loan forgiveness to include volunteer first responders and beginning farmers. And in 2015, Heitkamp introduced a bill that could enable North Dakota borrowers to refinance private education loan balances at reduced interest rates at no cost to taxpayers.

Heitkamp has consistently spoken out against Secretary DeVos’s attempts to undermine critical education assistance programs, like the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. In 2017, Heitkamp pressed  Secretary Betsy DeVos about concerns over the agency’s announcement that it may renege on its commitments to provide student debt relief for servicemembers, teachers, social workers, and other public servants enrolled in the PSLF program.

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