Educating For A Second Chance

Policies encouraging single parents to attend four-year universities and commit to self-sufficiency.

By: Tricia Breton

Giving single parents a second chance requires policy changes in welfare benefits.

Federally mandate states to provide up to five years of benefits - TANF, food stamps, and child care – while the

single parent attends a university.

• In 1996, the government reformed welfare policy.

• Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.

• New federal welfare policy called TANF – Temporary Assistance to Needy Families

Currently….

“PRWORA advocated a ‘work first’ approach to social welfare” (Duquaine-Watson 230).

“States can permit no more that 20% of their welfare caseloads to fulfill work requirements through participation in educational activities”(230).

But there are limits for the lucky 20%…..

Forty-nine states allow some educational activities, but with limitations.

• approval from case worker• only enroll in degree program that leads to employment• minimum GPA• satisfactory progress• maximum of 24 months

(Duquaine-Watson 231)

"Withholding education is a form of social control and a way of maintaining the status quo by ensuring that those at

the bottom of the social hierarchy raise few objections" (Ford 234).

• PRWORA significantly decreased the probability of both high school and college attendance among young adult women-by 20-25 percent.

• Negative implications for poor mothers’ ability to attain self-sufficiency and experience upward mobility, given the evidence of substantial earnings gains from even one year of community college

http://www.nber.org/digest/jan09/w14466.html

The AVERAGE weekly earnings for 2011:

• single mothers was about $400 per week

• unmarried but cohabiting mothers was about $334 per week.  

• women with no young children was $481 a week

• married mothers who are sole family earners was $732 a week

• married mothers in dual income families was $676 a week for their earnings plus another $1000 from their husbands.

Welfare policies need to encourage poor, single mothers to attend college, receive a college degree, and achieve

self-sufficiency for herself and her family.

HOW?

• Allow college courses to count as work-related activity

• Provide quality daycare and after school programs for children

• Keep scholarships, grants, and student loans as educational necessities, not income.

• Provide cash benefits, food stamps, and housing subsidies when criteria is met

• Maximum time receiving benefits is five years – four years to complete degree and one year to become stable

“A college degree yields substantial economic returns.  By the early 21st century, college graduates received

earnings about 90% higher than their high school counterparts...." (764).

"Research consistently demonstrates that access to higher education increases earning potential and the likelihood of self-sufficiency for women of all races, reduces the average amount of time poor women remain on welfare, and decreases poverty rates among female-headed households by more than half" (Ford 230).

Let’s not forget another important benefit of college education…..

"College attainment is also related to better health, longevity, happiness, and a host of extra-economic outcomes" (Torche 764)

Melanie Reardon, a single mother attending UMass Dartmouth, says:

“… the biggest achievement probably or the thing that I feel I have accomplished is probably just going back to school in general. That was a big, huge step for me to just put myself at UMass

Dartmouth. I got accepted but even after I got accepted I still had doubts about whether or not I should go. Since I have been here it's been great, I love my classes, I love my teachers, and I love

going to school. But I think the fact that I'm here, even still, kind of like ‘wow, I actually did this, I'm doing this.’”

There is always backlash….For instance, during an interview for a study on single mothers that do attend

college, another student lashed out and articulated a popular belief.

“You know, I'm going to school full-time and working 30 hours a week and I don't get any kind of help at all.  I have to pay for school myself! I don't

get any grants. I have to take out loans...I just don't think it is fair.  And I'm not saying that she shouldn't get help at all because she does have this kid

to take care of, but it just doesn't seem fair that I'm poor and I'm struggling, too, and yet all she has to do is pop out a kid and she gets all kinds of help!

It's almost like they are rewarding moms for having kids and not being married, like they're making it easier for them to get through college.

 Maybe I should go get pregnant and then someone will give me money and I won't have to work anymore - I could just go to school and take care of

my kid.” (Duquaine-Watson 236).

• 55% of single mothers are separated, divorced, or widowed.

• The percentage of single mothers employed full-time year-round is 44% in 2011.

• U.S. single parents have an exceptionally high rate of low-wage employment (around 40%).

• In 2012, a family of three whose income is less than $38,180 is considered “low-income”.

• Single mothers with a high school diploma average about $25,000, but single mothers with a bachelor’s degree average $53,000.

• Single mothers finance their education with federal pell grants designed for all low-income students, not just single mothers.

• Single mothers also use student loans to finance their education.

"We need to get beyond simplistic thinking and look at the range of policy options available—policies that would benefit both single parent and two-parent families—to ensure basic

economic security to such a large segment of the population.”