(Credit: United States Senate)
U.S. Senator from Texas John Cornyn will visit Martin Middle School Friday morning in East Austin to meet with students and host a roundtable discussion with Austin area superintendents, educators, and students about federal GEAR UP grants they have received for college and career readiness. From the latest grants for Central Texas, more than 7,150 Austin area students will benefit from more than $54 million over seven years.
The GEAR UP Program is a competitive grant program that helps low-income and historically underrepresented students achieve college and career readiness, improve high school graduation rates and postsecondary enrollment rates, and raise awareness of postsecondary options among student and families. Texas students have been awarded $885 million in GEAR UP grants in the past 20 years. Sen. Cornyn recently introduced legislation to improve the GEAR UP program by giving grant recipients increased flexibility to cater to local students’ needs, reducing the local cost share requirement from the current 100{870dce3150dcce8b7f57e497f1835ac6446de711f3b298b842add65a7b4249b0} to 50{870dce3150dcce8b7f57e497f1835ac6446de711f3b298b842add65a7b4249b0}, reducing administrative burdens for grant recipients, and ensuring a more fair and competitive application process.
Following the roundtable, Cornyn will meet with 7th grade students who are currently in the GEAR UP program to hear about their experience with the program and to discuss their post-graduation goals.
