UO program to help migrant youths faces cuts.

Byline: Greg Bolt The Register-Guard

A University of Oregon program that for 35 years has helped migrant youths get a GED and go on to college or jobs is in danger of elimination due to pending cuts in federal funding.

Officials with the UO's high school equivalency program are anxiously awaiting word from Washington, D.C., where a vote on an omnibus spending bill for labor, health and human services and education programs is expected sometime next week. Depending on which of two competing versions of the bill are adopted, funding for almost half of the high school equivalency programs nationwide could be cut.

One of them would be the UO program, which started in 1967 and was the second of its kind in the nation. It serves 120 Hispanic students a year from Seattle to San Francisco and from the Pacific Coast to Boise.

Emilio Hernandez Jr., the director of the UO program, said the pending cuts would leave Bakersfield, Calif., as the closest program, putting the goal of a good education and a decent job out of reach for hundreds of Hispanic teens and young adults.

"It's very serious as to the effect it's going to have on us," he said. "It means Washington would have no service, Idaho would have no service, Oregon would have no service and Northern California wouldn't have anything closer than Bakersfield."

The UO program is one of the relatively few residential programs among the 59 offered nationwide. Up to 40 students enroll for each 10-week term, and about half of them live in the UO residence halls. The others live independently or with family in the area.

The HEP program works with some of the most disadvantaged youths in the migrant community, young people who are at risk of ending up in gangs or prison, who don't have the money to attend school to get the education and training they need to lift themselves out of poverty. The program provides them with living expenses and prepares them for the GED exam.

"Our program deals with all these hard-core youth that are on the fringe and have no other place to go," Hernandez said.

Federal money supports the program, which Hernandez said ends up saving taxpayers money in the long run by keeping graduates out of the prison system and off government assistance. He said 85 percent to 87 percent of students get their GED and 90 percent of those go on to college or a non-agricultural job.

Hernandez called it a win-win situation for the university and HEP students. UO students tutor GED students in English, and they in turn help their teachers with Spanish.

It's not clear why the UO program is among those slated for elimination, Hernandez said. The House passed a funding bill that includes $24 million for high school equivalency programs, but the Senate version only includes $21 million.

Adopting the smaller figure would mean elimination of 24 programs. The size and cost of the programs on the cut list vary, but the UO's is one of the larger ones.

The Oregon delegation has been working to include full funding for the program. Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, along with Reps. Peter DeFazio and Darlene Hooley, are backing the funding.

"Peter's going to work to make sure it's funded at the higher level," said DeFazio's spokeswoman Kristine Greco.