PHILADELPHIA, PA – President Bill Clinton joined Congressman Chaka Fattah at the Mayer Sulzberger Middle School today to promote the GEAR UP program, a $200 million appropriated initiative championed by Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA) and signed into law by the President. 

The brainchild of Congressman Chaka Fattah, GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) opens up partnerships between colleges and middle schools and includes businesses and community-based organizations.  A key aspect of the program is the “21st Century Scholars Certificate,” official notification to middle school children that they can go on to college.

“President Clinton’s commitment to GEAR UP is why the launch of this program that will improve the life chances of millions of our young people, has been so successful,” says Congressman Fattah.

In Philadelphia, GEAR UP, the signature program of the Higher Education Act of 1998, will affect upwards of 17,000 middle school and senior high school students by its fifth year of its implementation. In the first year alone, GEAR UP will benefit 4,180 middle school students in 21 schools and Philadelphia will receive $3.3 million in federal funds. 

Explaining GEAR UP to the students at Sulzberger, the President said, “And Chaka came to me one day, Congressman Fattah did, and he said, you know, we're doing all this work to open the doors of college to everybody...And the kids that need it most are least likely to know about it.  So, he said, we ought to have a mentoring program to help kids when they're coming of age and they start to think about this, so that they get the learning and other support they need and they know that they will be able to go to college if they do what they're supposed to do. We worked as hard as we could to open the doors of college for all, but you guys have got to walk through those doors.  And I really believe that in the future we will look and back and see this Gear-Up program as a profoundly important step in ending inequality, in lifting people in America. .”

Sulzberger Middle School is one of the schools in the GEAR UP program and also sits in Congressman Fattah’s district.  The children in attendance received their 21st Century Scholarship Certificates today.