The Valley Chronicle - Padilla, Merkley Lead Senate Colleagues in Demanding Timely Funding for Agricultural Farm Worker Student Education

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) led eight Senators in urging U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to ensure the timely delivery of federal funds for the High School Equivalency Program (HEP) and College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP), which support important educational opportunities for agricultural farm worker students.

Across the nation, HEP and CAMP serve more than 8,000 students from agricultural farm worker families. California receives the largest allocation of these funds. The failure to ensure the timely execution of these federal programs threatens to undermine students’ success in California and across the country.

“HEP and CAMP programs have a 50+ year legacy of supporting students from farmworker and rural backgrounds so they can earn their High School Equivalency Diploma and succeed in college, thereby contributing to our country’s economic workforce,” wrote the Senators. “We are deeply concerned that any delays in administering the HEP and CAMP programs will result in irreversible damage to our students, families, and communities.”

“We urge the Department of Education to follow the letter and spirit of the law by posting notices inviting applications as soon as possible to ensure that the HEP and CAMP programs are able to continue their vital work,” continued the Senators.

On September 18, the Education Department released HEP and CAMP funding but did not issue any new grants. Two California HEP programs, West Hills Community College and California State University (CSU) San Bernardino, and two California CAMP programs, CSU Fresno and CSU Monterey Bay, received non-continuation letters in the middle of their funding cycles. The Senators also urged the Department to award prior experience points for programs that submit applications that were canceled or discontinued in the last competition.

In addition to Padilla and Merkley, Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) also signed the letter.

In response to the Administration’s previously delayed releasing of HEP CAMP funding, which caused providers to eliminate programs and fire the staff that support our nation’s migrant and farm worker students, Padilla and Merkley led a bipartisan group of Senate and House lawmakers in demanding that the Office of Management and Budget and the Education Department immediately release $52.1 million in federal funding for the programs. Padilla also joined Merkley and a bipartisan group of Senators to sound the alarm over the Trump Administration delaying millions of dollars in federal education grants with no-cost extensions for TRIO programs, which support low-income, first-generation college students from all backgrounds.