INSTITUTE, W.Va. — A hundred-dollar application error will cost West Virginia State University $500,000 for a program directed at helping Kanawha and Logan County students receive college credit.
The Upward Bound program is designed to provide academic workshops, career guidance and test preparation for low-income and first-generation college bound students.
In the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed budget, the institution would no longer receive funding because of a $104 discrepancy in the grant’s narrative describing how the funding would be used. Universities nationwide apply for the grant.
WVSU Director of TRIO programs Barbara Cary said in previous years, points would be deducted for errors and omissions.
“On the federal forms, the correct amount was submitted,” she said
Cary added because the university starts its budget on June 1, funding for the program has stopped.
“When you start talking about something as minute as $104, it’s a tragedy.”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told a House Appropriations subcommittee May 24 she would reconsider applications after 77 schools were rejected because of formatting errors.
However, DeVos told Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., during a June 6 Senate Appropriations subcommittee WVSU’s application could not be reviewed.
“I don’t accept that you can’t relook at something,” Capito said. “I’ve got letters here from students that are in that program. Many of them, the students that have no options. They have parents that haven’t gone to college.”
According to Cary, 110 students are currently involved in the program.
“Their lives have basically stopped,” she said. “They are accustom to being in an academic setting, thriving and striving to achieve more. And for now, nothing is happening.”
The Department of Education’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year is $59 billion, a reduction of $9 billion from the current amount.