http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_4280594

Latino advisers lose federal school funding
Three Colorado centers that supplement guidance counselors no longer have federal backing.
By Karen Rouse
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com

Tommy Gonzales wasn't too concerned about college while he was a student at Harrison High School in Colorado Springs.

It seemed like something he could plan for later, until a counselor, provided through a national League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) program, began asking him about plans for his future.

"They pulled me out of class," recalled Gonzales, an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. "They told me all about (colleges), how to look up other schools, how I can go on campus visits. ... They made it easier for me with the scholarships and things."

Some high school counselors in Colorado fear that type of assistance no longer will be available to low-income and minority students because, for the first time in 33 years, LULAC National Educational Service Centers will not get federal funding.

Matthew Looney, national development coordinator for LNESC, said the organization was expecting $3.4 million this year to operate 16 centers nationwide, including centers in Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo.

Trey Ditto, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Education, said LULAC was one of hundreds of grant applicants whose proposals for funding were ranked by an independent group of nonfederal panelists. The organization's ranking was near the bottom, Ditto said.

Looney said he believes space limitations on the application this year hurt LULAC's ability to thoroughly explain its programs.

Steve Garcia, director of LNESC in Colorado, said he will have to lay off three counselors this week. The centers serve more than 1,300 students in Pueblo, Denver and Colorado Springs.

Jane Trogdon, a counselor at Harrison High, said the program helped supplement the work of guidance counselors.

"My days are crazy, and if I start to sit down with a kid, I get calls. I have to answer a question, go down to a classroom," she said. The LNESC counselor, however, can focus on the students. "This is somebody that comes in and can spend 20 minutes or half an hour with just that kid, in a private place."

Hilda Gallegos, a counselor at Central High School in Pueblo, agrees.

"The main thing that we're going to miss at the high school is that the educational advisers helped provide academic, college, financial aid and career counseling to our students," she said.

Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.