Raising a child and attending college was not my first choice when I decided to pursue a communications degree here at Mercer County Community College. I had been living on my own as a young twenty-something for as long as I could remember, so when I decided I would buckle down and finish school, I figured it would be something I could breeze through in a reasonable amount of time. Then I got pregnant at the end of my first year and knew that my timeline was about to change.
It was inevitable that I would have to re-adjust, but along the way I have had crucial support in the form of childcare that allowed me to make the decision to continue on with my education. This isn’t the case with many student parents. I believe with the option for free to low cost childcare on MCCC’s campuses many more parents would be able to realize their dreams of earning their degree.
My first search for information regarding support for student parents at Mercer led me to the Office of Student Affairs at the West Windsor campus, where I couldn’t get a clear answer about what Mercer could provide in this situation. It took scheduling a meeting with Dr. Diane Campbell, Vice-President of Student Affairs, who was open to my questions and extremely knowledgeable on the school’s past, present and possible future relationship with childcare for its students.
According to Dr. Campbell, Mercer has tried a childcare co-op, collaboration with daycares in the community, and currently connects parents, specifically low-income parents, with Child Care Connection, which is a state agency, to help them obtain vouchers for childcare locations in their neighborhoods. She says there was once a child care facility on campus, but it didn’t last.
“At one time we had a full-blown child care center with teachers, and assistants and everything that the state law required…and it was run by Lakeview,” Dr. Campbell said.
The obvious issue was the cost.
“The problem was that it was too expensive for our students, and we had planned that people in the community would use the center and we would use that money to pay for the center. We just weren’t able to make the financial aspect of that work, because our students couldn’t pay what the other people were paying, so that effort closed.” Dr. Campbell said.
Funding may be an issue, but the Child Care Access Means Parents in School Program (CCAMPIS) may be a viable option for funding a new childcare center on campus. This program, according to the US Department of Education website, is a grant that supports low-income parents and schools willing to provide campus-based child care services. Although it looked as if the funding might be cut under the Trump administration, the White House proposal for the 2019 fiscal budget requested 15.1 million for the program.
A report published by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research says close to one-fourth of all college students are parents and according to Community College Daily, 45 percent of the student parents in post-secondary education are enrolled in community college classes. With education impacting earnings, providing childcare would be a big incentive to get parents, especially single parents from low-income areas, back to school. This impact can also predict their own children’s decision to pursue higher education according to data from a study titled Passing the Torch, and it improves parenting choices and behaviors. These are all significant reasons to re-assess the childcare availability on campus.
Choosing to go back to school before I had my daughter and attending school while pregnant and after her birth have proven to be two different worlds. Without support in the form of quality childcare, my path towards getting my degree with a child would be much different.
Having childcare has played a huge part in my work and school choices as I am able to build my schedule around when I have a caregiver for my daughter. My partner and I have options, but for the parents who don’t and who have to figure out what to do when they desire to lift themselves up, providing a place for our children to be cared for while we care for ourselves would benefit the community as a whole.
