美国国家公共电台 NPR Colleges Could Do More To Help Student Parents Pay For Child Care, Watchdog Says

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

College is hard enough, right? Raising kids and trying to get a degree is a whole other level of hard. And this is life for a lot of people. Twenty percent of all college students are also parents, and they are more likely than others to drop out. The federal government is now studying this for the first time. NPR's Elissa Nadworny got an early look at a new report that says schools should be doing more to help student parents.

ELISSA NADWORNY, BYLINE¹: In between Little League practice and making dinner, college student Lesley Del Rio is studying for an exam. She's working towards her associate's degree in Denver, Colo. She says her best study partner is her 8-year-old son.

LESLEY DEL RIO: His name is Leonardo - after the Ninja Turtle, not the artist.

NADWORNY: Being a single mom and trying to get a degree has been a challenge. She says there's times when she had to pick between time with her son and classes. In many of those moments, she says, she picked Leo.

DEL RIO: It hasn't been flawless. It hasn't been easy.

NADWORNY: She also works full-time², and she's become a master at squeezing in schoolwork.

DEL RIO: It's me staying up late, doing that at night. It's on the weekends while he goes to the park. It's during the week after work.

MELISSA EMREY-ARRAS: There are so many student parents going to college these days, which I know is shocking to a lot of folks.

NADWORNY: That's Melissa Emrey-Arras, a researcher at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. More than 4 million college students are raising children. That's according to a new report first obtained by NPR from the federal watchdog.

EMREY-ARRAS: A lot of folks tend to think of college students as single 18-, 19-year-old students without any kids.

NADWORNY: The report found that many of these student parents - about half - are dropping out before they get their degree. And this matters because then you don't have the degree to get a better job. And if you have loans, you're more likely to struggle paying those back. One major barrier for student parents - child care. It can be expensive.

EMREY-ARRAS: Many states, the cost of child care actually exceeds the cost of tuition at an in-state four-year public university. So it's not an insignificant³ cost.

NADWORNY: The thing that many student parents don't realize - they are eligible⁴ to use federal financial aid dollars to cover child care costs. It's called a dependent care allowance. And it's not automatic, so students have to ask their college to provide aid for child care. And they often have to prove through a day care bill or even a birth certificate that they, indeed, need it.

But students don't know they can get this aid because schools aren't advertising⁵ it. There are schools with active student parent programs, but when GAO researchers looked at their websites...

EMREY-ARRAS: We found that two-thirds of the school websites did not mention the option to increase federal student aid to pay for child care.

NADWORNY: And that lack of knowledge translates to real money left on the table.

EMREY-ARRAS: Over 2 1/2 million student parents could actually be eligible for additional federal student aid, but it's hard to know to ask for something if you don't know it exists.

NADWORNY: This comes at a time when child care on campus is declining. So last year, Congress authorized⁶ additional funding for child care on campus. In a statement, the Washington Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat⁷ and ranking member of the Senate's education committee, said the GAO report highlights an important need - quote, "the lack of affordable⁸ high-quality child care shouldn't hold anyone back from achieving their dreams."

For Lesley Del Rio in Denver, she's working towards her dream of getting a degree with Leo in tow. They often do their homework together.

DEL RIO: Sometimes when he's struggling with a problem, you know, I, like, will rub his back and, you know, make sure that he's OK. And he does that to me. And so, you know, he mimics⁹ me as, you know, as that support.

NADWORNY: She says he holds her accountable, and he tells her he's proud of her.

Elissa Nadworny, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE BEST PESSIMIST'S "INNER SENSE")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

3 insignificant   

adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的

参考例句：

• In winter the effect was found to be insignificant.在冬季，这种作用是不明显的。
• This problem was insignificant compared to others she faced.这一问题与她面临的其他问题比较起来算不得什么。

4 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

5 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

6 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。

7 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

8 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

9 mimics   

n.模仿名人言行的娱乐演员，滑稽剧演员( mimic的名词复数 )；善于模仿的人或物v.（尤指为了逗乐而）模仿( mimic的第三人称单数 )；酷似

参考例句：

• Methods:Models were generate by CT scan,Mimics software and Abaqus software. 方法：采用CT扫描，Mimics软件和Abaqus软件的CAD进行三维有限元模型的创建。 来自互联网
• Relaxing the mind and body mimics the effect that some blood-pressure pills would have. 放松身心会产生某些降压药才能产生的效果。 来自辞典例句