Everything I Know about America I Learned at Community College
Chapter 3: “It’s the Family, Stupid”
Bill Clinton’s 1992 political slogan, “It’s the economy, stupid,” won him a presidential election. He was absolutely right. Most Americans vote their self-interest, and economic well being is at the top of their political checklist. Numerous polls continue to confirm that only a minority of Americans can be considered true political “ideologues.”
Yet, despite statistics demonstrating that twenty percent of all American children are living in poverty,[1] it has become impossible to talk about the family without ideologue voices diving into heated debates over abortion, homosexuality, and single parenthood, or even issues such as paid family leave, universal preschool, and child tax credits.
We don’t have to swim in the politics of those issues to state the obvious: two incomes are better than one, particularly at lower income levels where two incomes may still not be enough.
In twenty years of teaching, no single impediment to college completion comes close to the struggles found in low income households. Here are just a few:
· Students supporting a parent and/or siblings through wages.
· Students supporting a parent needing significant healthcare.
· Students whose family cannot help pay for tuition.
· Single parents who attempt to attend college and raise children while working or looking for employment (a requirement of Medicaid).
· Uninsured students with significant healthcare needs.
I cannot overstate the fact that the lack of a family support system places a huge burden on students attempting to complete college.
Both psychologically and materially, community college students struggle to hold down jobs while attending college and paying for tuition, books, childcare, and healthcare. The missed classroom time and dropped classes related to work, family, and health needs — for themselves or their parents or children — remain a constant reason for classroom failure, as does the time it takes to complete a community college degree while also working at low-paying jobs without flexible schedules.
Consider these sobering statistics: Only 46% of students entering community college to obtain a certificate or degree attain their goal or are still enrolled in college 6 years later. Completion rates are even lower for minorities and low-income students. Less than 40% of students with an intention to transfer from a community college to a four-year university do so within 4–6 years.[2]
Research further suggests that the greater number of hours a student works correlates with a shrinking college course load and greater psychological stress.[3] It is no surprise that nontraditional students at community colleges list financial barriers and family responsibilities as the greatest impediments to their college success.[4]
At the community college where tuition is as low as $60 per credit hour, students are terrified of college debt. What for some parents may seem like insignificant amounts of money to pay for their child’s education are an impossibility for many families whether married or not. Many students defer health insurance. (Even after Obama subsidies, insurance remains too expensive for many students.) Over 40% of community college students apply for federal aid, and 10% depend on federal loans. One out of every five community college students receives federal grant money due to low income.[5]
Consider one of the most intelligent and hardworking students I have enjoyed teaching: Rebecca.* She is in her early forties, lives with her elderly father in order to help pay for his housing and medical expenses, and is a single parent of two young girls. Rebecca had previously worked in construction but was beginning college with the goal to transfer to a four-year university and obtain a bachelor’s degree. She wanted to earn more money for her family, as well as obtain more education for herself. Subsisting on Medicaid, food stamps, and student loans, Rebecca was also required to apply weekly for employment, jobs she really had no interest in accepting. After a routine application, Rebecca received a call from a construction company wanting her administrative experience on a major construction project involving a Fortune 500 company. The work was full time, and the pay was over $40,000 per year for two years. Rebecca would need to drop out of college to meet her family obligations if she took the job.
Rebecca came to me for advice. We discussed the opportunity — employer contacts in a new city (she had moved into the state to live with her father); opportunities for advancement within the construction industry; and, perhaps, employer help in paying tuition for a construction management certificate down the road. The cons: giving up the goal of a liberal arts degree at least for the foreseeable future.
Rebecca chose to quit college and take the job. Despite my encouragement that she was a success story, Rebecca still felt the sting of failure — she had not even finished her first year of college.
Consider another story. Maria was an 18-year old high school graduate with a solid GPA. Her middle class parents both worked full time and provided healthcare and living expenses for Maria while she attended a four-year college. After college Maria’s parents continued their investment in her life and paid her student loans.
Maria had more choices than Rebecca. She had delayed parenthood, had no debt, and decided to attend graduate school. Her first job after graduate school paid $60,000 per year, 30% more than Rebecca was earning in construction after multiple years of experience.
At this point some ideologues will shout: “Privilege!”
But I would say both Rebecca and Maria are success stories. They both worked hard to obtain employment. The difference in their educational opportunities rested solely on the presence (or lack of) a family support system.
One of the reasons family structure has become a contentious issue when discussing poverty is because divorce and single parenthood have become so commonplace as to make marriage as a viable solution seem impossible or, more probably, unnecessary and unimportant.
Demographic trends continue to demonstrate that marriage is becoming less common (only 50% of Americans over the age of 18 are married), just as cohabitating couples are becoming more common. The only problem with this trend is that cohabitation (including co-parenting) is linked to less long-lasting relationships and an increased chance of living in poverty when compared to marriage. The Pew Research Center reports that by the time a child is nine years old, she has had a 50% chance of experiencing the breakup of cohabitating parents versus a 20% chance of experiencing their divorce. [6]
Solo parents are the most likely parents to live in poverty. One third of all U.S. children live with an unmarried parent, either solo parenting or cohabitating, both of which increases a child’s chance of growing up in poverty and decreases the chances he will have the family support he needs to complete college. Perhaps due to their own childhood experiences, the Millennial Generation (ages 18–29), those most likely to attend community college, value parenthood far more than marriage.[7]
If I tell my students that my parents paid for my college education, I hear audible groans. Gone are the days where I tell jokes about my own marriage. (My students can’t tell that I am joking.) What I thought would be a great “Would You Rather” question (“Would you rather leave your parents or spouse to move to a city and obtain an industrial job or stay with your family as a rural surf in early modern Europe?”) proved ineffectual when students kept telling me “I hate my parents” or “I can’t stand my ex.”
What if we as a culture again encouraged marriage? What if we lived as if marriage was a viable option? What if students were given a new goal for their futures: to form and maintain strong family structures for the economic and mental well being of their children?
This is just one suggestion for combating poverty, and it is certainly not the only one worth discussing. Healthcare costs continue to be a major limiting factor in the life choices of many Americans. However, the absence of family support systems in the lives of community college students remains one of the most difficult roadblocks to their success.
*I have changed the names of these students.
[1] Robert Verbruggen, “Poverty and Single Mothers in the New York Time, National Review, February 13, 2018, https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/poverty-and-single-mothers-new-york-times/ (last accessed, June 8, 2018).
[2] Reclaiming the American Dream: Community Colleges and the Nation’s Future, a Report From the 21st-Century Commission on the Future of Community Colleges (American Association of Community Colleges, 2012), 9–10.
[3][3] J. Luke Wood, John D. Harrison, and T. Kenyatta Jones, “Black Males’ Perceptions of the Work-College Balance: The Impact of Employment on Academic Success in the Community College,” Journal of Men’s Studies, Vol. 24(3), 2016, 328–329.
[4] Monica L. Heller and Jerrell C. Cassady, “The Impact of Perceived Barriers, Academic Anxiety, and Resource Management Strategies on Achievement in First-Year Community College Students,” Journal of the First-Year Experience and students in Transition, Vol. 29(1), 20.
[5]Reclaiming the American Dream, 8.
[6] Gretchen Livingston, “The Changing Profile of Unmarried Parents,” Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends, April 25, 2018, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2018/04/25/the-changing-profile-of-unmarried-parents/ (last accessed, June 8, 2018).
[7] Ibid. Wendy Wang and Paul Taylor, “For Millennials, Parenthood Trumps Marriage,” Pew Research Center: Social & Demographic Trends, March 9, 2011, http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/03/09/for-millennials-parenthood-trumps-marriage/ (last accessed, June 8, 2018).
