Republished from Wonky News Nerd.
As if the rising cost of tuition and expanding levels of student debt have not been hard enough on America’s college students, here’s an obstacle that a lot of people don’t even think about: It’s becoming harder to for students to find childcare on campus.
According to an analysis from the Institute for Women's Policy Research (IWPR), campus-based child care has been declining even as the number of college students with dependent children has been growing. “The proportion of community colleges with child care on campus declined from a high of 53 percent in 2003-2004, to 46 percent in 2013,” IWPR found. In public four-year institutions, “the proportion of campuses with child care decreased from 54 [percent] to 51 percent from 2002 to 2013.”
That level of decline might not sound dramatic. But, considering how fast the number of students with dependent children has been increasing, it’s pretty clear that the trend ought to be moving in the opposite direction. IWPR finds that, in 2011, “26 percent of all post-secondary students in the United States, or 4.8 million students, were parents of dependent children.” That’s a 50 percent increase since 1995.
If you are a student with a young child, the loss of an affordable, campus-based child care option could mean the difference between graduating and moving into the middle class, or dropping out and sliding into (or staying in) poverty. And, as IWPR points out, affordable child care can be an oxymoron for people struggling with low wages and the cost of paying for their own educations:
Child care can be prohibitively expensive for many families, especially those with low-incomes. Low income families with children under 15 spend, on average, 40 percent of their average monthly income on child care, whereas their higher-income counterparts spend between 7 and 13 percent on child care. In all 50 states, the average annual cost of center-based infant care (for children less than one year old), which ranges from $4,863 in Mississippi to $16,430 in Massachusetts, exceeds the average fees and tuition of a 4-year public university in 31 states and the District of Columbia.
As the new Republican-controlled Congress convenes next year, it’s almost a sure bet that issues like relief from student debt and lowering the price of tuition won’t be a priority. But, could the Party of Family Values™ find some way to – at the very least – help college students care for their kids? It’s a long shot. But it’s an issue worth taking up.