MANCHESTER, N.H. —

New Hampshire students and educators are calling for the restoration of federal funds to help disadvantaged people go to college.

Nick Mixon, of Rochester, had tears in his eyes Tuesday as he described the impact the federally funded TRIO program has had on his life.

“I’m 27. I’m a nontraditional student at this point, but the only people who’ve ever helped me were these people,” Mixon said. “I didn’t even know they existed until I got to (the University of New Hampshire).”

TRIO and the GEAR UP program are designed to help low-income and disadvantaged students get to college, stay there and be successful, which can be a major challenge for students who are the first in their families to seek higher education.

But the money Congress appropriated for the programs is being withheld by the Trump Administration. Students said they can feel the potential slipping away for their peers who won’t be able to get the same academic counseling and college guidance they did.

“If no one is there to help them or show them what is possible, they’re never going to know,” said Geni Whipple, of Manchester.

The TRIO programs being targeted amount to $1.2 million in grant funding and will affect more than 1,200 students, with seven jobs being eliminated.

The GEAR UP program is set to lose $4.2 million in annual grant funding, along with 22 jobs statewide.

“If nothing changes, we will lose funding for 4,000 students from Stewartstown, which is on the Canadian border, all the way down to Nashua,” said Stephanie Lesperance, of the New Hampshire College and University Council.

There is bipartisan support to bring the funding back, with Gov. Kelly Ayotte saying she would personally appeal the decision to the U.S. secretary of education.

“These programs work. We know they work,” said U.S. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-New Hampshire. “The data shows us they work, and the human stories that we heard today show that they work, and that’s why I’m fighting with everything I’ve got to protect them.”

In its letter terminating the funding, the Department of Education said it was ending the program because of outreach to minority communities. But educators said Tuesday that the precise language in the grant was mandated by the Department of Education itself, highlighting what they called an arbitrary and unfair situation.

https://www.wmur.com/article/federal-grants-nh-disadvantaged-college-92325/68024438