“Sign up for Chalkbeat’s free weekly newsletter to keep up with how education is changing across the U.S. The Trump administration should abandon its push to dramatically revise a program that helps students from marginalized communities attend college, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators has told federal officials. At the center of their request are the federal government’s Talent Search grants, which typically go to hundreds of colleges and community organizations focused on higher education. Talent Search falls under the umbrella of the federal TRIO programs, a $1.2 billion network. The Trump administration has cut TRIO grants as part of its anti-DEI purge and proposed eliminating the program entirely . But the most recent grant applications posted by the Department of Labor, on behalf of the Department of Education, instead prioritize programs that focus on workforce development, including those that promote apprenticeships and job credential programs. The change in grant priorities comes amid a larger debate about the value of higher education and how much help students should have in accessing and completing college. T he Trump administration has emphasized preparation for the workforce as the primary purpose of education. The 12 senators sent a letter to Education Secretary Linda McMahon on April 9 , calling for the department to rescind the application and work with Congress to “protect the integrity of the Federal TRIO programs.” In a statement, the Education Department showed no indication it plans to change its approach. “We must break the cycle that assumes every student needs a four-year degree to succeed, and instead promote additional postsecondary alternatives that provide students and families with more choices,” spokesperson Ellen Keast said by email. “The Department is confident in our approach to this year’s competitions and encourages eligible entities to apply.” The Labor Department posted the revised applications on March 17, giving programs less than two months to apply for these grants — not enough time to remake such a big program, policy advocates said. Existing Talent Search programs now risk losing their funding if they don’t align with the application’s new priorities. In Talent Search programs, middle and high school students from low-income families attend college tours and receive tutoring and other counseling, part of the broader effort to encourage their journey to higher education. Supporters of the changes to Talent Search argue that it’s time to widen TRIO’s net, and that the revisions are well within the Higher Education Act, the federal law that authorizes Talent Search . Backers of the new application raise a common refrain: Not every kid needs to go to college. But others say that approach runs counter to TRIO’s core mission, which is to provide students with options they might otherwise not realize they have. “We’re very concerned, very troubled, that the administration would take one of the foremost vehicles for helping low-income Americans move into higher education and to alter that mission,” said Kimberly Jones, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education, a TRIO advocacy center. New priorities raise questions about Talent Search’s mission Integrating workforce programs into TRIO’s program can help broaden and improve TRIO’s scope by helping more students, said Adam Kissel, a fellow in education policy at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation. “The argument that TRIO is only for college-going students has a certain inequity built into that argument, whereas, if TRIO is helping people do any post-secondary ed … it’s a better way to help all students who may be qualified,” said Kissel, who worked at the Education Department on higher education programs during the first Trump administration. But there’s some doubt that workforce development programs are the right path for the students Talent Search serves, said Wesley Whistle, student success project director for New America, a left-leaning think tank. A 2025 report from the University of Chicago found students from low-income families attaining a bachelor’s degree or higher tended to earn the most among their demographics . About 51% of students from low-income families go to college , according to the Brookings Institution, far below the rate for their wealthier peers. But 68.5% of Talent Search participants enrolled in a postsecondary education program immediately after high school in the 2022-2023 school year, according to an Education Department report . “By narrowing TRIO’s focus to just workforce outcomes and programs, you are effectively closing doors rather than opening them,” Whistle said. Still, a GAO report published in 2020 found the department needed to do more to assess if TRIO programs work. The new application also prioritizes proposals from state agencies, intensifying fears from some TRIO supporters that hundreds of programs funded by Talent Search could be at risk. The Higher Education Act says Talent Search should “identify qualified youths with potential for education at the postsecondary level and to encourage such youths to complete secondary school and to undertake a program of postsecondary education.” It’s still unclear whether the revised applications will change Talent Search to the dramatic extent that advocates are fearing. Curtis Blackwell founded Sound Mind Sound Body Foundation in Detroit, a community organization that runs a program funded with a Talent Search grant. The program includes mentoring, skills workshops, and college application help. Blackwell said he hopes broadening his program’s mission will reach more students. Blackwell said they’re looking into partnering with a local vocational center to meet the new priorities. “Sometimes I feel like we don’t do a good enough job of expanding, of exposing them to other options,” he said. “For me, our number one goal within our program is to meet students where they’re at. … So if they’re at vocational school, that’s great.” Still, TRIO’s supporters worry that a new direction for Talent Search could portend bigger changes for the eight programs under the TRIO umbrella. Matt Meyers is president of the Pennsylvania Institute of Technology, a private junior college attended by roughly 600 students. His college has a TRIO grant of $379,377 for student support services. Meyers said these changes show the administration doesn’t understand TRIO. At his college, TRIO programs help get students from low-income backgrounds into the workforce. Sometimes that means taking them to a nice dinner so they can learn how to conduct a business lunch. “It sounds silly, but giving them those experiences are the things that that expose them to to also want more and have more experiences, more positive experiences, and grow,” Meyers said. The senators asking McMahon to rescind the application also requested that the department ensure there’s no lapse in Talent Search funding, which is set to expire at the end of August. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat who co-chairs the Congressional TRIO Caucus with Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, wrote in a statement to Chalkbeat that he believes the changes to Talent Search would “disenfranchise the exact students TRIO was created to uplift.” (Both Collins and Warnock signed the April 9 letter to McMahon.) “The summers I spent on campus at Savannah State as a young man enrolled in Federal TRIO programs exposed me to new worlds and helped me see myself on a college campus as a real college student,” he wrote. Lily Altavena is a national reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Lily at laltavena@chalkbeat.org .
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