Unemployed Uintah Basin residents considering their options are running into more bad news: A federally funded program that helps pay higher education tuition and book costs for those who meet required guidelines is out of money.

Across the state, any additional enrollment in the Workforce Investment Act — a program offered through the Department of Workforce Services — has been frozen until June 30, 2010.

Tracy Parrish, employment counselor at the workforce services office in Roosevelt, said funds have been depleted because of an increased demand for the program.

“When job opportunities in the oilfield go down, people start thinking about retraining and getting into other programs,” she said. “We’ve seen that trend in the past.”

Statewide, the number of people who received financial aid through the program tripled this past year. From October 2008 to October 2009, 2,263 students received assistance. From October 2009 to October 2010, that number skyrocketed to 6,409.

Locally, the number of students sponsored by the DWS program has increased dramatically as well. More Uintah Basin technology college students received financial aid from the program in just the first four months of this fiscal year than in the entire last fiscal year combined.

According to statistics obtained from the UBATC, from July 2009 to October 2009, 73 students obtained funding from the program. That number compares to 16 students from the same time frame in 2008 and 52 students for the entire past fiscal year — which ran from July 2008 to June 2009.

Now, just halfway through the fiscal year, federal funding for the program is gone.

“This isn’t a normal set of circumstances,” Parrish said. “I can’t remember a time that we’ve run out before, and I’ve done this for 15 years. We are trying to screen people to see if there are other programs that can help them, but we are having to turn a few away.”

Mark Anderton, UBATC financial aid coordinator, said the absence of aid from workforce services has the potential to dramatically impact students in Duchesne County, where there is less funding available for scholarships than in Uintah County.

In Uintah County, Anderton said, UBATC scholarships are more plentiful because commissioners there passed a resolution in 1998 requiring that 20 percent of money generated by mineral lease funding be funneled into education. Because of this resolution, UBATC receives $300,000 annually for eligible Uintah County residents.

No similar resolution has been passed in Duchesne County, and there are only a few major scholarship sponsors.

“The first thing I have to ask when people come in looking for financial aid is, ‘What county do you live in?’ ” Anderton said. “It’s amazing how many Uintah County people I can still help. But the loss of funding from this program is going to devastate people who live in Duchesne County unless we find some more donors.”Anderton said that right now, he would estimate he is getting 25 to 50 phone calls daily from people inquiring about financial aid.

“I’m turning people away on an hourly basis,” he said. “It’s very stressful having to tell people who are unemployed, ‘I’m sorry, but the county you live in has very limited funding.’ The situation is really horrible right now. The fact that this door has closed is going to put a big strain on the whole Duchesne County funding system.”

For people who are unemployed, the Workforce Investment Act offers critical assistance. Anderton said the program will pay for virtually every program offered at the technology college, with the exception of some oilfield-related classes that are excluded because of their high cost.

The program has specific income guidelines for youths and adults and a priority ranking process that takes barriers like a lack of high school diploma or a lack of work history under consideration. There are no income restrictions for dislocated workers.

Steve Casper, a UBATC student from Arcadia, is one of the many Uintah Basin residents who benefited from the program before it ran out of funding for new customers.

Casper said he used to drive truck in the oilfield but decided to pursue a different career path after being laid off as a result of the bad economy.

“I just needed more job stability,” he said. “After being laid off, I was applying for another trucking job and they told me that 400 people had applied for the same job.”

Casper decided to enter the pharmacy technician program at the UBATC and was able to secure enough scholarship money and Workforce Investment Act funds to pay for all of his tuition and required books and supplies.

School wouldn’t have been an option without those funds, he said.

“I guess I’m one of the lucky ones,” he said.