Increasing pressure from school leaders, parents, and elected officials has so far not persuaded the Trump administration to restore the more than $30 million it abruptly eliminated for tutoring, academic support, career guidance, and college scholarships to nearly 5,200 New Hampshire students through the GEAR UP New Hampshire and TRIO programs.
For the programs to continue, the U.S. Department of Education must restore funding by Tuesday. The programs serve students who are low-income, the first in their family to go to college, or have disabilities.
Stephanie Humphrey, principal of the Stewartstown Community School, called the funding a “lifeline” for her students in the North Country. Parent Jennifer Garrett said the loss of funding in the Pittsfield School District “feels like knocking the children down before they had the chance to really climb the ladder to their goals.”
Franklin School District Superintendent Dan LeGallo called the loss of funding for its 197 students “a significant blow.”
The U.S. Department of Education declined Wednesday to say why it had cancelled funding for New Hampshire’s programs but suggested it was due to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Those initiatives were required by the Biden administration which approved the grants.
In an email, Madison Biedermann, a member of the U.S. Department of Education's communications team, provided examples of DEI initiatives that led to some grants being cancelled. They included programs that hired from “underrepresented groups based on race, color, national origin, gender, age, and disability,” and required staff to participate in implicit bias and social justice training.
She declined to say what aspect of GEAR UP New Hampshire's application raised concern. When pressed, Biedermann said: “because their project was not in the best interest of the federal government.”
When asked a third time to clarify her agency’s reason for cancelling more than $30 million in funding for 5,200 New Hampshire students, Biedermann replied: “I have responded to your questions and anticipate you will include them in your story.”
GEAR UP provides every school in the state where at least half the students qualify for free- or reduced-price lunch a full-time advisor who works with students beginning in sixth or seventh grade until they graduate high school. It works with 28 schools across 11 districts.
TRIO provides similar support to 1,200 New Hampshire students beginning in sixth grade. It also provides financial assistance and access to professional conferences for college students pursuing research for graduate school.
New Hampshire’s GEAR UP program was one of nine in the country to lose funding this month because the Trump White House indicated it included “wasteful, divisive education projects - rubber-stamped with no proof of results.”
“We are eager to work with the U.S. Department of Education to address their concerns,” said Stephanie Lesperance, GEAR UP New Hampshire’s chief strategy officer. She said her team is grateful for support from the federal delegation and Gov. Kelly Ayotte.
During an event Thursday with the New England Council, a multi-state business group, Ayotte said she had not received an update on the status of New Hampshire’s funding. She said she wished the Trump administration had given the programs a chance to address its concerns.
“At least let us make sure that we can get through the grant period and then, you know, give some fair warning as to what the adjustments are going to be,” Ayotte said “One of the most difficult parts is the uncertainty of being able to navigate if you had planned around a particular amount and then all of a sudden it gets disrupted.”
GEAR UP New Hampshire received its seven-year grant in 2023, under the Biden administration which required programs to include DEI initiatives. The program was to receive $30 million over the remaining five years of the grant.
In 2025, New Hampshire’s program provided students 11,000 hours of academic and career advising; just over 5,000 hours of college visits and field trips; about 4,900 hours of student workshops; and 731 hours of workshops for students’ families and caregivers.
GEAR UP credited those services for a jump in student attendance rate across all its schools from 82% in 2024 to 92% this school year.
Nearly 1,200 middle and high school students in the TRIO program learned last week they no longer had access to their advisors, who were arranging tutoring, helping them pick the right high school classes, and navigating college applications and financial aid forms with them.
In the 2023-2024 school year, its most recent data, TRIO saw 96% of its students graduate and 87% enrolled in college. Five students earned a doctorate degree.
Julie Langlois, a Manchester West High School junior, had been with TRIO since freshman year. She told NHPR, “It feels like they're trying to take away my possibilities, like they're trying to take away my future in a way.”
Members of both parties are calling on the administration to restore funding.
Sen. Maggie Hassan talked with school officials and GEAR UP staff at Somersworth High School Wednesday. Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander met with a few dozen school leaders, students, and parents in Franklin Tuesday.
The delegation sent a joint letter to U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon urging her to restore funding. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan marked National GEAR UP week this week with social media posts citing the program’s success in helping students who may not see themselves in college decide to pursue a degree.
“At the heart of GEAR UP’s mission, a mission that could not be more important, is that every student is worth believing in,” Hassan said in a Facebook video.
Ayotte sent her own letter to McMahon, describing the programs as a way to build the state’s workforce.
“These young men and women are doing exactly what our state and our country hope for: they are striving to build better futures for themselves," she wrote. “They are not looking for handouts. They are looking for tools.”
