Maine Congressional Delegation Urges Department of Education to Reverse Absurd Bureaucratic Decision that Jeopardizes Future Success of Hundreds of Maine Students

Press Release

U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King and Representatives Bruce Poliquin and Chellie Pingree sent a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Education, Betsy DeVos, today to express their strong concern that the Department has refused to review the University of Maine at Presque Isle's (UMPI) application for two grants under the fiscal year 2017 Upward Bound Program competition due to an unintentional line-spacing issue the University was not permitted to correct.

In their letter, the lawmakers identified the issue that rendered UMPI's application ineligible, "a line-spacing error, appearing within two info-graphics on two of the application's 65 pages, is the cause of the ineligibility determination, as these two pages do not comply with the Notice's double-spacing requirement."

"According to UMPI, the Department's decision risks, over the next five years, denying 960 disadvantaged high school students the chance to fulfill their academic potentials," the Maine Delegation continued. "To deny UMPI's application a reading because two figures do not meet an arbitrary typographical format ignores the spirit of the Upward Bound Program, is antithetical to congressional intent, and would seriously jeopardize the future success of hundreds of students in Maine…We strongly urge the Department to apply some common sense to the Upward Bound Program competition and read and score UMPI's applications."

The Upward Bound Program at UMPI serves 129 high school students across Aroostook County, Maine, and has a strong and long record of success in sending local low-income, first-generation students to college. Since 1980, it has helped students with great needs access the promise of higher education.

Source