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Mui, Ylan Q . The Washington Post ; Washington, D.C. [Washington, D.C]30 Nov 2014: A.6.
ABSTRACT
Yet while financial aid, grants and scholarship programs can help defray tuition, advocates say assistance in
paying for child care is much harder to find In some cases, student parents have resorted to bringing their children
to class or parking them at the campus library, community groups say. To pay for child care, the couple got help
applying for a federal benefit through a national nonprofit group called Single Stop, which has begun working
closely with community colleges to assist vulnerable families.
FULL TEXT
As a growing number of young parents find a way to pay for and attend college, they're confronting a spotty and
inadequate child-care system that drives many to drop out or load up on debt - a problem that threatens to
undermine efforts to improve social mobility for young people from low-income and minority backgrounds.
Colleges, foundations and the federal government have made increasing enrollment in higher education a top
priority - particularly among low-income and minority students, who are more likely to be young parents.
During the past decade-and-a-half, the number of college students raising children has soared by 50 percent,
reaching nearly 5 million.
Yet while financial aid, grants and scholarship programs can help defray tuition, advocates say assistance in
paying for child care is much harder to find
In some cases, student parents have resorted to bringing their children to class or parking them at the campus
library, community groups say. And even when a school does provide child care, demand often outstrips the
available slots.
"Too often, when people have kids, they think that has to mean the end of their college education," said Barbara
Gault, executive director of the Institute of Women's Policy Research (IWPR), which has analyzed the data. "If we
really are serious about equity in education, it's very important to consider parenthood status."
In other words, though parents often cite their children as the motivation for enrolling in college, children
themselves are often the biggest obstacle to earning a degree.
For Ruben Gomez Jr. and Hazel Arceda, it wasn't the price of tuition that forced them to consider dropping out of
college two years ago. It was the cost of having a baby.
Paying for day care threatened to consume almost all of Gomez's meager paycheck. But quitting meant giving up
on better job opportunities. "That completely shifted everything in my life. I didn't have a clue how I was going to
provide for him," Gomez said.
The lack of affordable child-care options stands in the way of improving social mobility, experts say. Higher
education has become almost mandatory for a good-paying job following the Great Recession. The unemployment
rate for workers with only a high school diploma is much higher than those with even a few years of college and
about twice those with a bachelor's degree.
Though the bulk of student parents are enrolled in community college, only 46 percent provided onsite day care in
2013, compared with more than half in 2002. The federal government has provided meager additional aid: In 2003,
the federal program that helps subsidize on-campus child care was slashed from $25 million to $15 million - and it
has stayed there ever since.
"It's wonderful to get parents into college. It's a whole other thing to support them so they get their degree," said
Sara Goldrick-Rab, who is a sociology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "I am very worried about
the amount of financial risk that's accruing to the people who are starting college with very little resources."
Low-income parents spend about 40 percent of their monthly earnings on child care, according to a recent Census
Bureau report. That is one of the reasons that student parents end up with more debt than other college graduates.
IWPR found that they finish school with an average of $28,350 in debt, about 13 perent more than students without
children. Only about a third of student parents graduate within six years, according to IWPR, compared with half of
childless students.
When her son, Matthias Gomez, was born, Arceda took a semester off from Miami-Dade Community College in
Kendall. But she and Gomez, now her fiance, were determined that they would both stay in school - even though
that means doing homework after their son has gone to bed. They may be up until 2 a.m, only to wake up three
hours later to start a new day.
"Our whole routine changes," Arceda said in Spanish. "You can't just go to school and think about yourself. . . . My
mind is often on my son and his future."
To pay for child care, the couple got help applying for a federal benefit through a national nonprofit group called
Single Stop, which has begun working closely with community colleges to assist vulnerable families.
Early results at several campuses show helping students apply for social services and other aid improved retention
by as much as 32 percent. Gomez transferred to Florida International University with a double major in
international relations and political science. He expects to graduate in December and said he hopes to become a
foreign service officer.
"It all comes down to resources," said Elisabeth Mason, Single Stop chief executive. "Economic interventions made
At Ohio State University, officials are partnering with local nonprofit organizations to build dedicated housing for
student parents that they eventually hope will include a child-care facility. The university has two day-care centers
that serve faculty as well as students, but there is often a waiting list to get in.
So, Traci Lewis, head of the school's support program for student parents, helps fill in the gaps. She keeps a
portable play yard and plenty of toys in her office for little ones, and students sometimes list her as an emergency
contact so Lewis can pick up their children from school when they are sick.
But perhaps the steepest costs of all are the ones that are the hardest to quantify.
Rishonda Holley, 38, says her weekends are devoted to homework rather than hanging out with her three sons,
ages 8 to 20. Her goal is to finish up at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut next year, then transition to a
bachelor's program focusing on health-care administration.
Holley shares her grades with her sons - the good ones and the bad - to hammer home the importance of studying
and sacrifice. Sometimes they say they wish she were home more, but Holley said she hopes they understand the
bigger lesson she is trying to teach them.
"I want them to see that having anything takes hard work and dedication. You have to be serious about what you
want," she said. "My days are pretty long, and my nights are short."
ylan.mui@washpost.com
DETAILS
Subject: Parents &parenting; Low income groups; College campuses; Child care; College
students
Pages: A.6
Section: A-SECTION
ISSN: 01908286
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