Posted on 08/08/2006 2:46:34 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
A talk with federal officials tentatively set for late August
The League of United Latin American Citizens and others have requested to meet with U.S. Department of Education officials about the denial of $3.4 million in federal grants for educational assistance programs that would affect 12 area schools.
Feliberto Valdez, director of the Corpus Christi LULAC National Education Service Center, said he will continue to seek alternative local sources of funds but plans to shut down the center's operations Aug. 31.
"We're trying to get members of the community to send letters to the Department of Education," he said. "We're also trying to see what financial support we can get from the community, in case we are not able to change that decision."
The Education Department announced on Thursday that a grant application for the 16 national centers has been denied because of a low grant-application score, sparking a response from officials, including Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi.
Ortiz sent a letter to Education Secretary Margaret Spellings last week, requesting an in-person debriefing on the grant competition process and explanation for the department's denial of funding.
"The plan right now is to convince the Department of Education to award that grant," said Cathy Travis, Ortiz's communication director. "You have to know people and know how education works, to know how much good those programs have done in South Texas."
Through the center's Talent Search program, advisors go to high school and middle school campuses to give assistance to Hispanic and low-income students on college preparation exams, financial aid applications and study skills.
Education Department spokesman Trey Ditto said the center's grant application underwent the same process all others face before they are awarded or denied.
Three volunteer evaluators review each grant application, grading them based on each program's stated objectives, community support, personnel quality, evaluation plan and budget.
"These reviewers are three non-federal employees who have no relation to the department or President Bush," Ditto said. "This is the same system we have been using for years."
Applicants had to score 98.6 or better on a 100-point scale. The center's application score was below 60 on all three evaluators' reviews, Ditto said. There were 752 eligible applicants seeking a share of the $213 million in the department's Talent Search grants, 458 of which were funded.
The Corpus Christi branch received about $907,800 in the last four-year cycle funded by the Department of Education, said Valdez. The branch used $229,305 of that in 2006. Valdez said more than three-fourths of the center's funding has come from Education Department grants.
Ditto said a meeting between Education Department and LULAC officials has been tentatively set for later this month.
Ray High School career counselor Debbie Barrera, about to start her first year in that position, said the denial of funding comes as a shock. She has previously worked as an academic counselor at Ray and as an intervention specialist at Carroll High School.
"It's a great loss for our students," she said. "A lot of parents do not have the computer skills to get online and complete (financial aid) applications. It's a very threatening application, to be honest."
Contact Israel Saenz at 886-3767 or HYPERLINK mailto:saenzi@caller.com saenzi@caller.com
(Looks like LULUAC needs to send some people to Grant Writing School!)
The 16 National Centers:
Pomona, CA 360 East Holt Avenue Pomona, CA 91767 (909) 623-0588
Los Angeles, CA 5339 E. Olympic Blvd. (S) Los Angeles, CA 90022 (323) 838-0091 # students to be served: 1,100
San Francisco, CA 4877 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94112 (415) 333-1114 # students to be served: 1,000
Pueblo, CO 720 N. Main Street, Suite 455 Pueblo, CO 81003 (719) 542-9074
Colorado Springs, CO 829 North Circle Drive, Suite 101 Colorado Springs, CO 80909 (719) 637-0037
Denver, CO 715 Galapago St., Suite 1 (S) Denver, CO 80204 (303) 893-0100 # students to be served: 1,100
Miami, FL 7100 S.W. 99th Ave., Suite 104 Miami, FL 33173 (305) 270-0063 # students to be served: 1,100
Chicago, IL 4355 W. 26th Street, Suite 3 Chicago, IL 60623 (773) 277-2513 # students to be served: 1,100
Kansas City, MO 500 Delaware Kansas City, MO 64105 (816) 561-0277 # students to be served: 1,000
Albuquerque, NM 500 Second St., NW, Suite 500 Albuquerque, NM 87102 (505) 243-3787 # students to be served: 1,100
Phildelphia, PA Marianna Bracetti Academy 2501 Kensington Ave., Suite 111 Philadelphia, PA 19125 (215) 423-4811 # students to be served: 1,100
Bayamon, PR Calle Maceo #29 Bayamón, PR 00961 (787) 785-8080 # students to be served: 600
Corpus Christi, TX 400 Mann Street, Suite 513 Corpus Christi, TX 78401 (361) 883-5134 # students to be served: 1,100
Houston, TX 2220 Broadway Houston, TX 77012 (713) 641-2463 # students to be served: 1,000
Dallas, TX 345 S. Edgefield Avenue Dallas, TX 75208 (214) 943-2528 # students to be served: 600
El Paso, TX 109 N. Oregon, Suite 416 El Paso, TX 79901 (915) 351-1133 # students to be served: 600
LULAC: Racist, separatist hate group.
Now how did I guess this involves (in reality) ILLEGALS??? ...who think they have RIGHTS in this country. Thanks to our Washington government that has, and continues, to encourage their breaking of our laws, dragging down our schools, costing the tax payers BILLIONS, screw these criminal invaders.
Know any right-wing groups that get federal funds???
Good. Doling out funds based on race or ethnicity is just racist BS.
Obviously, the grant application process is racially biased in favor of Euro-centric "values" like the proper use of English, the coherent organization of facts, mathematical accuracy and a future-oriented world view. The Dept of Education needs to hire a consultant to revise the application process to make it more accepting of diverse linguistic traditions, intuitive decision making, and a present-oriented value system.
I'd like to see the salaries these crooks were paying themselves with our money.
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