A once-celebrated UNL program is the latest victim of federal spending cuts

Just two weeks ago, the Project RAÍCES team remembers being celebrated in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln communication magazine for its success in recruiting and retaining teachers from a diverse range of backgrounds.

Now, that program has lost its funding due to President Donald Trump's drive to cut federal funding across the country, specifically targeting programs that focus on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

The goal of Project RAÍCES, which means roots in Spanish, was to identify communities having difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers. The program would train and support future educators from a diverse range of backgrounds to fill those needs. But now the U.S. Department of Education ordered Project RAÍCES to return the funding meant to last for three to five years.

“We knew we were going to probably be on the chopping block, but the quickness and the impersonality, the just dispassionate form letter that we received was really tough, but the worst part was having to tell the students," said project specialist Courtney Johnson.

More than 70 students who were part of the project have lost either their scholarships or other resources provided by the program. Project RAÍCES offered 16 full-ride scholarships to UNL students in partnership with Kansas State University.

Ted Hamann, a UNL professor and the co-principal investigator, or grant leader, said the full-ride scholarship students are only covered through the end of this semester.

"They're in good shape until the end of May, but after that, their status gets a little bit more up in the air," he said. "And we realize that these exciting young folks who are hoping to become teachers and hoping to return to their communities are in jeopardy," he said.

The students in the program would have helped address teacher shortages in mostly rural areas. The most recent survey from the Nebraska Department of Education shows there were about 670 unfilled teacher positions across the state. Studies show high-poverty rural districts have some of the highest rates of teacher turnover.

The other project leaders are UNL professors Amanda Morales and Lauren Gatti. This week, Morales and some of the Project RAÍCES team are presenting in California at an education conference to discuss the success of the program. However, with the sudden funding cut, the organizers are paying for their own way to the conference, which was initially supposed to be paid through the grant.

The majority of the grant was federally funded with a 25% match from both UNL and Kansas State University.