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Mothers returning to college |
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Mother’s are constantly being pulled in multiple directions. They fight with the desire to be their own person, while they are normally known as just some one’s mom. The responsibilities of home, work and childcare wear most moms out. Some mothers have the desire to go back to school, and it seems possible. They do so much already that they are professional multi-taskers. “What is one more thing in the delicate balancing act already in place?” they ask themselves. For some going to college is just a matter of filling out an application and picking a few classes. For most middle class mothers who decided to stay home with their children, they have to fight to find funding; funding that was promised to them by President Obama during his campaign, it seems nearly impossible to fund the educational dreams that they have put aside to raise a family. Most families with a stay at home mother have the financial stability to do so, which in turn makes them ineligible for aid in some cases; which forces them to take out student loans that will take decades to pay off. The stay at home mom was a thing of the 1950s, until the recession started forcing one parent out of work. The majority of stay at home parents are moms. They put their needs, desires, and dreams aside to take care of the children and the home. They give up their weekly lunch dates with friends, manicures and girls nights out; in exchange they get dirty diapers, bottles, and nap times. Most mothers are perfectly content giving up some creature comforts for the benefit of their children; they know that eventually they will get to know their old selves again. They will get to return to the career they put off, or return to school. There is a belief that if you want to attend college there are funds to help if money is all that is keeping you away. Fill out a form, instantly find out what your expected contribution will be to college. For most schools, even a zero contribution from the family means thousands and thousands of dollars of debt by the time you earn a bachelor’s degree. President Obama pledged more funding to mother’s returning to school, which would strengthen the economy. In his State of the Union address, a full seven pages of transcript, merely ten lines are dedicated to the issue of funding college. There are promises of grants and scholarships; however most are hard to qualify for. If a student comes from a middle class family, it is almost a punishment when it comes to the funds available for college. There are Pell grants, currently grants 5,750 to each student in a school year (Digest n.p.). That seems like enough money to make a dent in the cost of college, however with college tuition having risen 72% since the 1950s, the money can hardly cover costs of tuition and books (Pilon n.p.). There are many more grants available for low-income families, first generation college students, GED recipients, displaced workers, and single mothers. What about the twenty something housewife who decided to have a family before college? The women, who decided they wanted a child before they were 30, raised a family and saw their child off to the first day of kindergarten? The other students in the categories that receive more aid are not less deserving but it seems as if someone is punished for making average income, getting married and having parents who have a degree. There are some people who believe that the economy is not stable enough to grant people funds to go to college, loans should be given instead (Heller n.p.). There are many different loans available to a college student, most having decent interest rates and low monthly payments; some loans are not repaid until the student has graduated and found a job. These are great options for someone that can graduate and get a job within 6 months that will cover the payments. Even when the payments are low, it can take up to 20 years to pay of an education. The students, who started their degree when they were 30, will be paying on that loan until 10 years before retirement. A single semester at a community college can cost over a thousand dollars just in tuition a private university can run nearly 3 times that cost. The scariest cliché that could apply here is, “You get what you pay for.” Could that be true? Is a degree from a private college worth more than a degree from a public college? What if most of the degree was earned at a community college? Is there any hope for the costs to align with the cost of living? The costs of college have made an education a luxury. (Pilon n.p.) |
