By Betsabe Segovia
Being an undergraduate in college is stressful at times. Being a college student, a parent, and holding down a job is even more difficult, especially when affordable child care is hard to find and many parents are working just to pay for the daycare and your classes.
Students that are parents often have a hard time finding a good and safe child care facility near them and have to learn to leave them or be away for a few hours. According to a 2014 study from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, 4.8 million college students were parents of dependent children in 2011, the most recent year for which data is available. This figure represents about 26 percent of all college undergraduates. The program Student Parent Success Initiate (SPSI) is focusing in supporting the students with dependent children pursuing college. According to SPIS they still need research, toll-buildings, technical assistance, public education, and network advocates among student parents in postsecondary education.
The goal of this program is to help students that are parents to continue their education and achieve participation in graduation rates across the United States. They also want to support the low-income parents to achieve their credentials, and achieve knowledge about successful programs to many students that are parents. Having the ability to have child care in our campus can over-pass many child care services, benefiting many students so they can reach their goal of graduating and obtaining a better future for themselves and their children. Some colleges already have this program and have seen the possibilities of helping the student body to grow and their kids to grow as well. We are the future and our kids are the future as well. If we teach and show them that their parents could finish college, they can also become successful people.
Many students are dropping out of their universities to care for their child at home. They leave the university to raise their kids and say that they will come back once the kids start school, but most never return. The student parents are increasing each year while students’ support is decreasing. We need to work together as society to help our fellow classmates to graduate.
Currently, there are no programs in Laredo to help parents with child care unless you are a single parent and receiving child support from the partner. Many are single mothers, but there are also many couples that need the benefits as well. This program could help Laredo grow and eventually improve with more doctors, lawyers and other professionals who were able to study while being young parents.
