The federal Department of Education is reversing its decision to cut funding for a University of Southern Maine-based program to help veterans go to college, Sen. Susan Collins announced Tuesday afternoon.
The program, called USM Veterans Upward Bound, would have ended on Sept. 30 if the funding hadn’t been restored.
The department cut more than $600,000 of already allocated funding to the program in mid-September, because it said parts of the program reflected the priorities of the previous presidential administration and conflicted with the current administration’s priorities.
Veterans Upward Bound at USM is an eight-year-old program that works with low-income, first-generation or disabled Maine veterans seeking higher education. Eighty percent of participants complete college within four years, well above the national average for that population.
Upward Bound is part of a group of federal initiatives, called the TRIO programs, that help disadvantaged students access higher education. The department also cut funding to another Maine-based program for low-income high school students in Androscoggin and Oxford counties.
The University of Maine System, which formally appealed both decisions, has not yet received a response about that program, River Valley Upward Bound, a spokesperson said.
Collins, a longtime supporter of the TRIO programs, independent Sen. Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and Jared Golden, D-2nd District, sent a letter Friday to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, calling the cuts “deeply upsetting” and requesting the funding be restored.
Collins, a Republican, said Tuesday that following the letter, and her conversations McMahon, the department would release that funding.
“Maine has one of the highest percentages of veterans in the nation, which is why initiatives like this are so important,” she said in an emailed statement. “I am thankful this program will continue so the veterans who have sacrificed so much for our nation — including the 125 veterans currently being served by this program — have the opportunity to pursue higher education here in Maine.”
In a joint statement, UMaine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy and USM President Jacqueline Edmondson thanked Maine’s delegation for fighting for the program, which they said had changed the lives of hundreds of Maine veterans.
“The restoration today of this essential federal funding ensures that veterans across Maine will continue to have access to the dedicated support and resources they earned, deserve and were promised, and that our incredible staff are honored to provide,” they wrote.