{"id":11263,"date":"2020-01-17T18:04:10","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T18:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11263"},"modified":"2020-01-17T18:04:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T18:04:10","slug":"study-helping-single-moms-graduate-college-would-benefit-tx-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=11263","title":{"rendered":"Study: Helping Single Moms Graduate College Would Benefit TX Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Single mothers in Texas with a bachelor\u2019s degree earn $663,096 more over their lifetime than what they would have earned with only a high school education, a study shows. Photo: Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

by Eric Galatas<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

HOUSTON \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0Texas would see a big return on investments that help single mothers graduate from college, according to a new report from the\u00a0Institute for Women\u2019s Policy Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sheila Katz, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Houston, says the economic well-being of Texas\u2019 150,000 college students who are single mothers, and their children, depends on getting a college degree.<\/p>\n

Moms who graduate with an associate\u2019s degree are 52% less likely to live in poverty than a high school graduate.<\/p>\n

\u201cA single mom needs to not just earn a self-sufficient wage to support herself, but she needs to earn enough money to support a child or two,\u201d Katz stresses. \u201cSo having at least a bachelor\u2019s degree is a way for an individual to raise their own earnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report projects that if Texas invests $135 million to support 10% of single moms in college, the state would see a total economic return of $900 million through tax revenues and other savings. Graduation rates also would increase by 47%.<\/p>\n

Single mothers with a bachelor\u2019s degree in Texas are projected to contribute more than $200,000 more to the state\u2019s tax coffers than single moms with just a high school diploma.<\/p>\n

Single mothers with an associate\u2019s degree are expected to earn $10,000 more per year than single mothers with just a high school education. With a bachelor\u2019s degree, they earn $23,000 more.<\/p>\n

Report co-author Lindsey Reichlin Cruse, study director at the Institute for Women\u2019s Policy Research, says the data shows there\u2019s a strong economic case for up-front investments to help single moms.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only do single mothers themselves stand to gain substantially from earning a college degree, our state and national economies stand to gain as well in the form of dramatically increased tax revenue and reduced spending on public assistance,\u201d she points out.<\/p>\n

The report\u2019s recommendations include increasing access to safe and affordable child care, and connecting more moms with federal programs such as Head Start and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.<\/p>\n

Colleges also can help by including child care costs when calculating financial need, and adjusting attendance policies when moms have to put their children\u2019s needs first and miss class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Eric Galatas HOUSTON \u2014\u00a0Texas would see a big return on investments that help single mothers graduate from college, according to a new report from the\u00a0Institute for Women\u2019s Policy Research. Sheila Katz, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Houston, says the economic well-being of Texas\u2019 150,000 college students who are single mothers, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11264,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11263"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11265,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11263\/revisions\/11265"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}