My path from incarceration to UC Davis graduate as a student parent | Opinion
Pursuing higher education while raising a family and after experiencing incarceration was no small feat. Formerly incarcerated parents often go to extraordinary lengths to rebuild our lives and support our families, and I am no exception. For many of us, pursuing a college degree is a key part of that journey.
Higher education offers formerly incarcerated or reentry student parents like me a second chance to build pathways to multi-generational success. But we need to be able to afford school in the first place. And, on this front, there is clear room for improvement: The cost of college remains a major barrier for too many reentry student parents.
California’s higher education system wasn’t designed with reentry students in mind: Only one in three California institutions provides reentry services, and yet there are thousands of these students across the entire state, including every undergraduate University of California campus.
A disproportionately high number of reentry students I studied alongside at UC Davis are parents. But despite these barriers, we persist through college, knowing our kids’ futures are in our hands.
Now, it’s time for higher education leaders and policymakers to do their part to ensure those dreams are not deferred.
Juggling school, kids and a job
Financial stability is essential not only for reentry student parents, but also for our children, who are more likely to succeed in school when their needs are met at home. When we don’t receive the financial aid we need, the consequences can snowball.
I struggled in my first year at UC Davis because my financial aid package didn’t account for my kids. With a budget meant for one person, I was feeding and housing two more. I asked for more aid at the start of the year, but the university didn’t grant it to me for months.
I quickly realized I didn’t have enough money for rent, so I took an overnight shift as a home health aide. Between raising two kids and starting my degree, I was already stretched thin, and this job only made matters worse. On my hour-long commute back to Davis one night, I nearly fell asleep on the freeway. I pulled over and broke down crying.
That same year, I was talking with a classmate in a similar situation. She told me that her financial aid troubles made her want to go back to doing what got her locked up in the first place — an option she should have never had to consider.
The cost of college should not determine who gets to go. When reentry student parents do enroll, higher education is a way out from our pasts and a path to prosperity for our children. With the right support, we can and do succeed.
Expanded financial aid
The GAINS for Student Parents Act is extremely important: By expanding access to financial aid for student parents, the act directly addresses one of the biggest barriers reentry students face.
By July 31, this law requires the California Community Colleges (CCC) and the California State University Chancellor’s Offices to develop policies that factor student parents’ true costs of college into their financial aid packages (called a cost of attendance adjustment). However, the law can only request that the UC Office of the President meet this provision — there’s no legal requirement. The UC’s compliance so far is encouraging to see.
No student should have to worry that they won’t receive enough financial aid to keep from working taxing jobs like I did or by considering difficult, dangerous decisions like my friend. Campus leaders across the UC system must continue carrying out the GAINS Act to its fullest and smooth the path to and through college for the hundreds of thousands of student parents statewide and the millions of California parents who are not yet enrolled.
Over 20 years after my release from incarceration, I graduated this spring with a Bachelor of Science in managerial economics. In spite of the hurdles in our way, reentry student parents are proving we are scholars and leaders — and we can and will thrive.