The United States Department of Education (DOE) has announced it will be providing $40 million in grants to the Promise Neighborhood grantees across seven states.

In a press release by U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, the DOE announced that funding would be provided to several states across the country, with the aim of assisting nonprofits, schools and other organizations that are helping underserved communities. This specifically includes areas with a high concentration of low-income individuals, high rates of academic failure and juvenile delinquency or incarceration.

Promise Neighborhoods is authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which gives federal funding to public elementary and secondary schools across the country. The program was first proposed by former President Barack Obama during his presidential campaign in 2008, and was enacted into law during his first term in office.

The $40 million funding that was provided to Promise Neighborhoods grantees helps establish different levels of management, which includes a project director and advisory board. The funding also allows community members to get involved and provide feedback on what they believe is needed for their area. In addition, the organization conducts “needs assessment to understand the context of communities,” according to youth.gov. The recipients of Promise Neighborhoods grants are required to provide data on the academic and social outcomes of their initiatives in order to assess the effectiveness of grants.

The program has previously collaborated with federal and local state agencies in order to implement their efforts, in part due to the existence of other community-focused programs such as the Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant program.

In the past, the Promise Neighborhoods grants have been given to the Atlanta University Center neighborhood, where it went toward giving children in the community better access to educational opportunities in collaboration with the area’s historically Black colleges and universities. They have also been given to the East Side neighborhood of San Antonio, where grants were used to establish new pre-K classrooms in the district and implement a new science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning curriculum.

Nancy Williams, Broome County’s commissioner of social services and mental health, supports the Promise Neighborhoods program but said there is no record of it impacting funding in the Broome County area for now.

“The Promise Neighborhoods funding is a worthwhile program which addresses the disparities children face who live in poverty,” Williams wrote in an email. “I am unaware of any eligible entity in our community who has applied or received funding through this initiative.”

Andrew Weiss, a graduate student in the adolescence education degree (MAT) program, believes that the program is helpful and needed for disadvantaged students.

“Every child should have access to resources that can help them reach their full potential,” Weiss said. “Likewise, children in underserved communities deserve the chance to grow and excel. As long as the grantees use the funds appropriately, I don’t see how this could be considered a blunder by the department.”

Laura Marrin, a senior majoring in chemistry, thinks that the grant program is a step in the right direction for addressing education inequality.

“I think the program is a good start for minimizing the equity barrier,” Marrin said. “However, I think there needs to be a larger push, on a national scale, to increase community involvement in access to education and educational resources. We need students to actually want to come to school to learn, and community and parental involvement is a good start.”