Late last week, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) notified members of Congress that 7 new State GEAR UP awards totaling just over $30 million were made from the 2019 GEAR UP competition. We understand that the Grant Award Notifications have been sent to the award winners, but that a press release is not forthcoming (you’ll note ED is no longer providing press releases for the majority of programs making new awards). The project abstracts should be posted shortly to the ED website.  

The GEAR UP Class of 2019 is as follows:  

• Northern Arizona University (AZ); $4,899,761 in first-year funding 
• Board of Trustees Community-Technical Colleges (CT); $3,969,072 in first-year funding 
• Mississippi State University (MS); $3,711,667 in first-year funding 
• University of North Carolina System (NC); $4,259,655 in first-year funding 
• New Jersey Commission on Higher Education (NJ): $5,000,000 in first-year funding 
• Nevada Department of Education (NV); $3,500,000 in first-year funding 
• Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (WI); $5,000,000 in first-year funding 

While we are thrilled for our colleagues at each of these sites, we are also very aware that a substantial number of State applicants fell just short of the funding cut-off threshold and that Partnership grants did not have the opportunity to apply. With each celebration comes some important reflection: the need for GEAR UP is vastly larger than GEAR UP’s current appropriations can accommodate. You have our assurance that we are doing everything we can to grow the GEAR UP program so that more students, families, and communities can benefit from the remarkable work of our community.  

Congratulations to the Class of 2019!