This article was first published in Medium.
Being a single parent is a challenge, particularly when trying to access higher education. In Miami, single mothers especially struggle to balance learning and career growth with caring for their families.
The Center on Equity in Higher Education contends that single mothers are central to closing gaps in higher education access, equity, and completion. The center advocates more significant investments be made in helping single mothers pursue education, emphasizing how graduating can benefit families, communities and societies as a whole. However, many single mothers continue to face obstacles to accessing education.
Roughly 11% of all undergraduate students in the United States (approximately 1.7 million) are single mothers, according to a report published by the Institute for Women Policy Research However, single mothers are less likely to hold post-secondary credentials. Demographically, Black, Indigenous and White women are more likely to start college and not finish while Latina women are more likely not to begin at all.
A report published in collaboration with The U.S. Department of Education expressed goals to prioritize single mother access to higher education considering it a pathway to economic security and employment.
Single mothers are most likely to have earned a high school diploma (31.7%) or completed some high school (26.1%),statistics in similar to single women who are not mothers.
There is stark contrast, however between the 25.3% of single mothers who do not finish high school compared with only 14.5% of single women who are not mothers. Accounted in this data is the potential that some of these women become pregnant in high school and subsequently drop out to care for their children.
Of single mothers who do earn a college degree, about 38% earn associate degrees, but only 14% finish bachelor’s degrees, accounting for factors including time, cost and the logistics of balancing full-time motherhood, as well as other employment.
Education access amongst single mothers is starkly different from education access amongst single childless women, who generally have better access to educational resources and are more likely to complete post-secondary degrees.
Ursa Gill lives in Miami with her seven-year-old son and has sacrificed earning her Bachelor’s degree while raising her son.
“There’s a lot of factors,” Gill expressed. “Age is a factor, economic background is a factor, whether or not there is childcare is a huge factor…it takes a village and if you don’t have that support group, something has to suffer.”
For Gill, what suffered was her education.
Like many single parents, Gill was reliant on child care when her son was younger.
“Taking your child to day-care costs more than a college degree,” she added expressing concern about going into debt should she decide to return to school, taking out loans, while also paying child-care expenses. “I probably could’ve gotten a master’s in what I paid for childcare.”
Now that her son is older and in grade school, Gill has considered options for going back to school but still worries about the costs associated with finishing her degree and the potential of going into debt while balancing the priorities of taking care of child, paying bills and rent.
“You don’t take out a loan you can’t pay back,” she said.
Living in Miami is also a factor. With one of the highest costs of living in the United States, it is increasingly difficult for any single-income households.
Most of Gill’s career has been spent working in libraries and archives. She would eventually like to earn her master’s in library science in order to become a full-time librarian.
For now, she is biding time while her son is at school working part-time as a library assistant acknowledging that she’s also thinking about her son’s future education as well as her own.
Mission North Star is an organization that functions out of Miami Dade College and supports young parents (between the ages of 18 and 29), providing academic support and boasting a 78% retention rate. However, as an older student, Gill is not eligible for the program.
“We don’t live in a time when it is feasible to be a single parent,” Gill added. “It is very difficult to do too many things in the United States. There is absolutely no financial aid for parents, you’re on your own.”
