Rep. Michael Michaud represents Maine's 2nd District in the United States Congress.

The title of this column may be strange, but it represents two very important education programs that my colleagues and I in the House of Representatives are fighting hard to properly fund.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs is where "GEAR UP" comes from. This program seeks to increase disadvantaged students' secondary school completion and postsecondary enrollment by providing support services and by assuring students of the availability of financial aid to meet college costs. I strongly support GEAR UP because it has proven effective in closing the "achievement gap."

In 2000, students from high-income families were 30 percent more likely to attend college than their peers from low-income families - only a 10 percentage point improvement since the 1970s. GEAR UP is the only federal program that provides resources and assistance on a school-wide basis to close this gap by preparing students for college. In fact, according to the most recently available data from the U.S. Department of Education, 84.4% of the first class of GEAR UP students graduated from high school in 2005. This remarkable graduation rate is well above those of other low-income students (64%) and all students nationally (73.9%).

Since its enactment, GEAR UP has served well over a million students in 48 states, the District of Columbia and three territories. Due to the success of GEAR UP, millions of low-income and first-generation students are now equipped with the fundamental educational tools to successfully pursue a higher education.

Communities across the nation recognize the immense potential that GEAR UP embodies. In the 2006 GEAR UP competition, the limited availability of funds resulted in only ten percent of applicants receiving an award. In fact, more than 100 proposals scored high-quality ratings and still did not receive funding, to the detriment of thousands of well-deserving students. For 2009, the Department of Education has said there will not be enough funds to invite new applicants to the program without an increase in funding.

That’s why I recently joined my colleagues in pushing for increased funding for GEAR UP. Additional funding would allow additional reform-ready communities to turn their educational improvement plans into action.

The latter part of this column’s title, "TRIO," actually represents multiple educational programs.

Last year, TRIO programs served approximately 877,000 students. With 20 TRIO projects in Maine, over 6,000 students are currently being served by TRIO programs like Upward Bound and other student support services. While these numbers are fairly impressive and a great success, nationwide they only accounts for about 7% of the eligible population of students.

The TRIO programs provide a continuum of educational outreach and support services to low-income, first-generation students from middle school through college. But they cannot continue to expand these services to all eligible students without a significant increase in their annual appropriations. Such an increase is overdue as TRIO has not received an increase in funding since FY2005. By allocating additional funding, the TRIO programs will be able to serve many more students in need of assistance.

Every year, I meet with students from Maine who are the shining examples of what GEAR UP and TRIO can do. These students share their heartwarming stories of being able to overcome many odds, and explain how these programs are a big part of their success.

Given our current economy, properly funding programs like GEAR UP and TRIO makes sense. It will give our students a leg up and a proven path to positive results.