SLO County college readiness programs at risk in Trump cuts? ‘Relic of the past’

Victoria Llamas will attend UC San Diego this fall, with plans to study political science and eventually maybe become a lawyer.

Llamas, a high school graduate from Santa Maria, wrapped up her final summer last year with Upward Bound, a federally funded program for first-generation, low-income and disabled students, where she and other high schoolers stayed at Cal Poly’s dorms for several weeks and participated in college readiness classes on campus.

Since 2022, Llamas has been involved with Upward Bound’s summer programming through Cal Poly and at her high school during the academic year. It’s part of multiple federal TRIO programs throughout the state and around the country funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

But through all of the academic advising, lessons and field trips to college campuses, the one moment that stuck with Llamas the most from her time with the program was less uplifting.

It occurred in May when an Upward Bound director informed Llamas and other students in the program that the program might potentially have only about a year left of funding following threats from the federal government to cut it and other TRIO programs.

“How are you going to cut something that’s helped all these kids who don’t have resources?” Llamas said during a recent interview with The Tribune.

Earlier in the spring, President Donald Trump’s executive office sent a letter to the Senate Committee on Appropriations proposing to defund TRIO programs in its budget.

The proposal letter called the programs “a relic of the past” and said college is now “not the obstacle it was for students of limited means.”

Cal Poly and Allan Hancock College have both run similar TRIO programs in SLO County that help students from disadvantaged backgrounds prepare and access college.

Recently, Allan Hancock College was informed that funding for its College Achievement Now, or CAN-TRIO, would not be renewed for the upcoming academic year, the college told The Tribune over email.

Meanwhile, if Congress approves the proposals to defund TRIO programs, hundreds of students through Cal Poly — as well as many more across the nation — could also lose their support

“Maybe they think that there’s enough resources, but there really isn’t,” Llamas said.

What are TRIO programs?

Since the 1980s, both Upward Bound and TRIO Achievers have run out of Cal Poly through grants from the federal government, according to Cal Poly spokesperson Keegan Koberl.

TRIO programs have existed nationwide since the 1960s, evolving from Upward Bound into three programs following the Higher Education Act of 1965, according to the Council for Opportunity in Education website, a non-profit advocacy group for TRIO programs around the country.

Upward Bound, Talent Search and Student Support Services became the first three programs aimed at supporting disadvantaged students seeking higher education.

TRIO Achievers, which is Cal Poly’s version of Student Support Services, provides college students access to tutoring, academic advising and help with financial aid. Talent Search programs find students with the potential to succeed academically from disadvantaged backgrounds, while Educational Opportunity Centers help qualified adults continue on to higher education.

TRIO programs also include Upward Bound Math/Science and Veterans’ Upward Bound.

All TRIO programs fall under the same mission: Help students who historically have faced limitations to their education.

Upward Bound at Cal Poly primarily works with students from several Central Coast schools: Ernest Righetti, Pioneer Valley, Santa Maria, Nipomo and Central Coast New Tech high schools.

Along with the program’s Summer Academy, which runs through Cal Poly over the summer and houses a selection of students on campus for six weeks, Upward Bound also works with students at their respective high schools during the academic year.

For Llamas, those workshops and sessions with Upward Bound exposed her to various universities, majors and careers that aligned with her wants and needs, as well as kept her on track academically.

Before the program, she said envisioning her path to higher education wasn’t easy even with her parents’ support.

“They pushed me to go towards it, but they kind of didn’t know how to help me, which is where Upward Bound came in,” Llamas said.

Cal Poly waits for Upward Bound budget confirmation as Allan Hancock’s funding cut

Amid Trump’s proposal to cut funding for TRIO programs, some Upward Bound programs in other states already received letters from the Department of Education that their grant funds were cut days before they were projected to start, Inside Higher Ed reported in June.

Allan Hancock College’s CAN-TRIO program was recently notified that its grant from the Department of Education would not be renewed for the next cycle, according to an email from the college.

Its current grant will expire Aug. 31.

“While we are deeply disappointed in this outcome, Hancock remains committed to supporting first-generation, low-income, and disabled students and is actively exploring ways to sustain key elements of the program moving forward,” the college wrote.

As of Aug. 5, Upward Bound at Cal Poly was still waiting for confirmation on next year’s budget for the program, Koberl wrote in an email.

At Cal Poly, Upward Bound runs on a five-year grant cycle with the Department of Education, and it is waiting for its fourth year award notice, Koberl wrote.

Although the program’s budget confirmation is usually delivered in the spring, Koberl wrote it would be “inappropriate for the university to speculate” why it had not received the confirmation yet.

On the other hand, TRIO Achievers at Cal Poly — which serves college students with the same disadvantaged qualifications Upward Bound does — confirmed its funding for the 2025-26 academic year in early July, Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier told The Tribune on July 9.

Have TRIO programs been threatened by funding cuts in the past?

This is not the first time TRIO programs have faced threats from the federal government.

In an email to The Tribune on August 1, Council for Opportunity in Education President Kimberly Jones cited three instances in which TRIO programs faced opposition: first in 1983, 1995 and then most recently during Trump’s first administration.

All involved pushes targeting specific TRIO programs or eliminating the programs — but all decisions ultimately went in TRIO’s favor, Jones said.

“Thankfully, the TRIO community has broad bipartisan support from both Republicans and Democrats in Congress — that is what has allowed the programs to survive,” Jones said.

The council works with TRIO program educators at Cal Poly and Allan Hancock College, as well as those in the 76 other schools the nonprofit has partnered with in California, ranging from community-based organizations to four-year institutions.

According to Jones, the Senate Committee on Appropriations on July 31 passed legislation that would sustain TRIO funding at $1.2 billion for fiscal year 2026. A complete and final decision for TRIO program funding should come in December, she said.

The recent news surrounding potential TRIO program cuts meanwhile has motivated Llamas even more as she prepares to pursue political science at San Diego in the fall.

She urged those in Congress to invest in the TRIO programs because the students that are a part of them could potentially be the future leaders of tomorrow.

Without the programs, however, Llamas said that may never be a reality.

“If we don’t help fuel the youth right now, how are we going to expect to have a good future?” Llamas said. “When they are the future?”

This story was originally published August 11, 2025 at 12:52 PM.