Low-income Iowa students to benefit from $26M federal grant

DES MOINES — Roughly 7,500 low-income students in 13 Iowa school districts will receive extra support to prepare them for post-high school education as the result of a $25.8 million federal grant announced Monday.

The Iowa Department of Education announced the competitive grant award from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant comes from the federal agency’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP program.

The funding will be deployed to 13 Iowa school districts in which more than half of students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch: Burlington, Cardinal, Centerville, Clinton, Columbus, Davenport, Davis County, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Marshalltown, Saydel, South Tama and Storm Lake.

Half of the GEAR UP funding, along with another $8 million in contributions, will go toward scholarships toward college education and post-high school training for students in the program.

The other half of the funding will go to the 13 districts to fund services that will follow a cohort of current seventh-grade students through their high school graduation in 2029 and their first year of post-high school education.

“We are grateful for this federal investment in our work to provide 7,500 students most in-need of support with critical wraparound services as they meet high expectations in middle school and beyond,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in a news release. “Alongside schools, postsecondary institutions and community partners, we will continue to provide students what they need to realize their incredible potential.”

Districts will be able to use the federal grant funding to increase school counselors and other staff to provide college and career counseling, to develop an individualized career and academic plan for students, and to provide “targeted, wraparound services to meet the academic, behavioral and emotional needs” of students and their families, according to the news release.

In 2020, 88 percent of GEAR UP graduates in Iowa had plans to complete a two- or four-year degree or other post-high school training and education, the state education department said. The department also said GEAR UP students in Iowa demonstrated higher rates of attendance, proficiency in reading and math, and higher standardized entrance exam scores.

Iowa was not chosen for GEAR UP funding in the 2021 federal budget year. The state’s congressional delegation sent letters to the federal education department in January 2022 and January 2023, in which Iowa’s representatives questioned the federal agency’s process for reviewing states’ applications to the program.

The federal education department responded in March of this year, asserting that “all eligible applications were carefully reviewed and given full consideration within the requirements of the law and regulations governing the GEAR UP Program.”

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