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79R5722 JLZ-D

By:  Raymond                                                    H.C.R. No. 91 



CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
	WHEREAS, For more than 40 years, federally funded Upward 
Bound programs have helped countless young Americans enter college, 
graduate, and achieve success, enabling them to participate more 
fully in America's economic and social life; and
	WHEREAS, Established in 1964, Upward Bound was designed to 
recruit and assist high school students from low-income families, 
students from families where neither parent is a college graduate, 
and low-income, first-generation military veterans who are 
preparing to enter college; and
	WHEREAS, Today, 770 Upward Bound programs across the country 
are helping tens of thousands of young men and women prepare for and 
succeed in their college careers by providing instruction in 
literature, composition, foreign languages, mathematics, and 
science on host college campuses after school, on Saturdays, and 
during summer vacations; and
	WHEREAS, In addition to these traditional Upward Bound 
programs, there are Upward Bound Math Science and Veterans Upward 
Bound programs that focus more narrowly either on the academic 
skills they teach or the student populations they serve; and
	WHEREAS, In Texas alone, there are nearly 60 such programs, 
at public and private four-year senior colleges and universities 
and at junior and community colleges across the state; and
	WHEREAS, While all Upward Bound programs must provide 
instruction in the areas noted earlier, they also provide a host of 
other services, including academic, financial, or personal 
counseling; exposure to academic programs and cultural events; 
tutorial services; mentoring programs; information on higher 
education opportunities; assistance in completing college entrance 
and financial aid applications; college entrance exam preparation; 
and career-oriented work study opportunities; and
	WHEREAS, A U.S. Department of Education report on the 
effectiveness of these types of programs found that, while Upward 
Bound programs did not affect enrollment at colleges and 
universities, they did have a "substantial impact on high school 
and postsecondary outcomes for certain groups of students," namely, 
the very populations targeted by these programs; studies also show 
that students in the Upward Bound programs are four times more 
likely to earn an undergraduate degree than those students from 
similar backgrounds who did not participate; and
	WHEREAS, Despite the programs' track record in helping 
countless at-risk, low-income, and first-generation college 
students succeed in their pursuit of a college degree, President 
George W. Bush recently submitted a proposed budget for federal 
fiscal year 2006 that may result in the elimination of funding for 
Upward Bound and several similar programs that specialize in the 
recruitment of students from populations that historically have 
been significantly underrepresented in higher education 
institutions in the U.S.; and
	WHEREAS, The budget, which was unveiled February 7, 2005, 
proposes cutting $4.3 billion from 48 programs in the Department of 
Education, shifting funds away from proven college outreach 
programs; and
	WHEREAS, Over the years, congress has demonstrated its 
support for our national commitment to providing educational 
opportunity for all Americans regardless of socioeconomic 
background or circumstance by establishing a series of federally 
funded programs under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, 
and it is incumbent upon the members of congress to affirm their 
continued support by maintaining the necessary funding for those 
programs; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the 79th Legislature of the State of Texas 
hereby respectfully urge the Congress of the United States to 
maintain its support for the U.S. Department of Education's Upward 
Bound programs by not cutting program funding in the federal fiscal 
year 2006 budget; and, be it further
	RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward official 
copies of this resolution to the president of the United States, to 
the speaker of the house of representatives and the president of the 
senate of the United States Congress, and to all the members of the 
Texas delegation to the congress with the request that this 
resolution be officially entered in the Congressional Record as a 
memorial to the Congress of the United States of America.