Gear Up, a federal program aimed at helping low-income Idaho students prepare and pay for college, got a reprieve Tuesday.
Gov. Butch Otter, who last week threatened to shut down the program if the State Board of Education didn't raise millions in matching funds by 5 p.m. Tuesday, extended the deadline indefinitely.
And supporters said they already have raised more than two-thirds of the $2.9 million needed to pay this year's share of matching funds.
The deadline extension will allow foundations and other potential donors to bring proposals for funding before their boards, some of which aren't scheduled to meet for a few weeks, State Board spokesman Mark Browning said.
And it comes as a relief to administrators in Idaho school districts including Homedale and Emmett.
"If this can be implemented in any way, it represents hope, it represents options for kids, which is a great thing," said Homedale Middle School Principal Luci Mereness Asumendi. "I am grateful to Gov. Otter for giving them a chance to find the matching funds; he certainly didn't have to do it."
Gear Up program manager Decker Sanders said Tuesday the board still needs to raise about $900,000 to complete the needed matching funds for this year. Overall, the state has to come up with $6 million in cash or in-kind donations to meet its $18 million share of the six-year program.
The board initially submitted a grant application that called for teachers' salaries to be used as matching funds. But the U.S. Department of Education said the salaries couldn't be counted as matching funds. That was when Otter told the board to come up with a better plan for paying its share of Gear Up.
"The governor is not against this program, but it has to be clean on finances," Otter spokesman Jon Hanian said.
Otter's office also told the board last week to review the work of its staff and "take whatever disciplinary actions (including removal) it believes are necessary," according to a letter from Wayne Hammon, an administrator at the Division of Financial Management. The board met in executive session Monday on personnel matters and plans to do so again this afternoon, Browning said. Details of the discussion or possible actions were not disclosed.
Gear Up is a national program that operates in 47 states. It focuses on secondary schools that have a high proportion of low-income students.
Word that Gear Up had won a reprieve was news to Emmett Junior High Principal Wade Carter, who was planning to start using Gear Up this year. The school has 615 students, about 60 percent of them low-income. Gear Up would definitely help the students to prepare for college and to believe they could afford to take their education beyond high school, Carter said.
"Anything we can offer these students to help them go on to a post-secondary school is going to be an advance to them — and to our community," Carter said.
There's no firm deadline for when the money must be raised, Hanian said.
Anne Wallace Allen: 377-6433
