Vt. College Singles Out Parents

What galls Dulcie Christian is when her Champlain College classmates say they didn’t get their papers done because they were out drinking all night.

“I think, well, I was up all night with two sick kids and I did get mine done,” Christian said. “Plus, I did the laundry.”

As a participant in an unusual state-supported college program geared to move single parents off welfare, Christian, 33, is well aware of how her life diverges from the conventional undergraduate path. There’s no room for wild parties. And instead of spring breaks in Jamaica, Christian uses time off to double up on hours working at the local Social Security office. Her old Subaru just better hold itself together, because there’s no deep-pockets daddy to bail her out. More than once, in a pinch, Christian has brought Justin, 9, or Shelby, 5, to class with her.

Fewer Than 10% Drop Out

For Christian and the 60 or so other single parents enrolled at Champlain this semester, the challenges are immense. And yet, said program director Carol Moran-Brown, “The retention rate for these single parents is higher than the school average. You wouldn’t believe the motivation.”

With federal welfare reform providing an impetus for recipients to train for better jobs, the 11-year-old program at this private college has emerged as a national model.

Typically, college officials say, fewer than 10% of these students drop out; most in the program earn a two-year associate of arts degree and many go on for a four-year bachelor’s degree. More than 90% of the single-parent graduates have not returned to welfare rolls, said Champlain College President Roger H. Perry.

Those are strong indicators, Perry said, that the program is achieving its goal of helping to shatter the cycle of single parents living off government assistance.

State money pays the salaries of Champlain’s two full-time social workers devoted to single-parent students--almost always women, though the occasional single dad enrolls. State subsidies also fund the day care that enables these parents to take classes at the 1,400-student campus. The program is labor intensive, with workshops and weekly social hours at which single parents trade everything from outgrown snowsuits to names of kid-friendly professors.

For a group often made up of first-generation college students, social workers focus on time and stress management, as well as study skills. The students and social workers often meet daily, discussing what’s going on academically--and also addressing such outside issues as abusive boyfriends, nasty landlords and sick babies. Budgets are a big topic, as many single parents struggle to get by on welfare payments while attending the four-year college. When it all becomes too much, “that’s when I show up at their door, saying, ‘I’m concerned about you, what’s going on? Can I lend a hand?’ ” social worker Felicia Messuri said.

Champlain is a career-oriented school where most students easily step into jobs upon graduation. But Moran-Brown said the 97% job placement rate in the single-parent program stands out. A state study is underway to determine how well the single-parent graduates do over time--and how their experience compares to single parents who do not finish college.

Last year, Champlain received $96,000 in state money to run the program. An experimental seven-year federal waiver allowing Vermont to use special support funds for the single-parent college program expires in June. Eager to continue the program, the state Legislature passed a measure allowing the state’s social welfare agency--Prevention, Assistance, Training and Health Access--to allocate discretionary funds for single parents in college.

At Champlain, single-parent students pay full $10,000-a-year tuition. But they are eligible for grants and loans. Under state rules, their welfare checks are not in jeopardy if they also hold down jobs.

When state supplements for transportation, caseworker salaries and incidentals are factored in, supporting each single-parent college student costs about $500 per year above the normal welfare allotment, Moran-Brown said. “It’s cheap,” she said.

Parents and Kids Do Homework Together

In Vermont, an unemployed single parent with one child usually receives about $557 each month, she said.

Noting that the endeavor benefits the state and students alike, PATH’s deputy commissioner, Sandy Dooley, said her office views the single-parent college program as “a work-force development strategy” that could easily be replicated elsewhere.

For 23-year-old Cindy Sarault, it was dissatisfaction with a $5.65-an-hour job as a grocery clerk that pushed her to study accounting at Champlain. Now she and her 5-year-old daughter, Brooke, often do homework together.

Like Sarault, classmate Heidi McMann, 21, got pregnant as a high school senior. After two years as a low-wage office assistant, McMann signed on at Champlain to study computer networking.

“Partly it was about getting somewhere in life, so I could get a decent job,” she said. “But also I wanted Taylor, my daughter, to learn from me, not just see me working in dead-end, low-wage positions forever.”

Only a few miles from campus, in the small apartment she shares with her two children, Christian agreed that a big payoff is “setting an example of how important school is.”

As the first member of her family to graduate from high school, Christian said it never crossed her mind to continue her own education. “I thought college was for people who can write papers,” she said.

Then someone mentioned the single-parents program at Champlain. She tried a class and liked it so much she quit her clerical job. To the horror of her working-class parents, she went on welfare and sought out state child-care subsidies.

Soon Christian was set on a career in social work, and earning a 3.97 grade point average. Graduation is a year away, and Christian has a job lined up at the Social Security Administration. She said that after juggling school, a job and two kids, she is unfazed by the prospect of paying off college debt of at least $25,000.

For her, the biggest obstacle has been “making it through the tough times, when the money is short and your temper is short because you’re worrying about the money, and the kids have problems at school and you have problems at school. You just want to crawl off somewhere. But you can’t.”

‘I Do Think I’m Breaking the Cycle’

At school, Christian said, she talks about her kids constantly. At home, she talks about school. Better yet, her kids see her hunkering down with a book, and it makes them want to do the same. When they complain that they don’t like a teacher, Christian says, guess what, she doesn’t like all her professors either. Then they all do their homework together.

“So I do think I’m breaking the cycle,” Christian said. “It feels great.”