Eviction risk usually declines with age. The picture is more complicated for student parents. (Via Chris Robert on Unsplash)
Student parents in their mid- to late-30s are about twice as likely to face an eviction filing as their peers who aren’t in school, according to findings released by New America this week.
It’s a surprising finding because the threat of eviction generally declines with age, the researchers said: “College enrollment, in other words, is not just failing to protect these adult students from eviction. It is associated with a greater threat of eviction.”
📚 Read more: A mom, a student: How a San Antonio parent juggles school, work and child care for a better future (via our partner The Texas Tribune)
Eviction, or the threat of it, has significant consequences. Many adults are returning to college “precisely because they are trying to escape financial precarity,” the researchers said. A housing disruption once they are already enrolled could put families farther behind than before.
In fact, the researchers previously found that just 15% of parenting students threatened with eviction went on to complete their degree, 23 percentage points lower than those who didn’t face the same issue. An eviction threat is also associated with lower post-enrollment incomes, the researchers found.
📚 Read more: Supporting student parents brings generational change (via Open Campus)
📚 Read more: How higher ed drives economic growth (via Open Campus)
It’s important to remember: 20% of college students are parents. We often highlight the fact that college drives economic mobility. But these findings highlight that extra support may be necessary to ensure that is true for adults returning to school with families in tow.
The researchers pointed to several reasons why the eviction threat doesn’t diminish when older student parents enroll — beyond the fact they may already be dealing with financial hardship.
Financial aid formulas rarely account for the fact that, when child care is factored in, the out-of-pocket cost of attending a public college is significantly higher for student parents than their peers without children.
Older students may have already exhausted their lifetime Pell Grant eligibility from prior college enrollment, and some may be carrying existing loan debt.
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Elsewhere on Open Campus
Ari Krakowski and John Steinberg prepare to open an exhibit at UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science museum designed in partnership with Indigenous youth. The project is one of 18 at UC Berkeley to see its National Science Foundation funding suspended. (Kelly Sullivan/Berkeleyside)
From Berkeley: The National Science Foundation accused UC Berkeley researchers of failing to disclose foreign funding when it suspended nearly $21 million in research grants last month. But several of the researchers leading those projects said they haven’t any received foreign funds, Felicia Mello reports at our partner Berkeleyside.
The allegations are the latest iteration of conflict over research dollars between the University of California system and the Trump administration, which has been trying to exert ideological control over universities. The 18 grants range from a study on the skin color of poison frogs to the development of new ways to edit genes in corn and barley plants.
“Berkeley right now is the canary in the coal mine,” said Grant Witness cofounder Noam Ross, a computational scientist. “The administration is strangling the flow of funds out of the agency, in particular on topics that it doesn’t like. It also seems like it’s trying its hand at new ways of suppressing and canceling research.”
From Indianapolis: An investigation by Claire Rafford at our partner Mirror Indy found that Martin University’s closure was potentially preceded by years of significant financial problems and that leaders didn’t share the extent of the issues with the campus community.
In the final months before shuttering last December, the university appeared to rely on federal dollars to make payroll, Claire found.
A group of students, former staff and the Martin alumni association have filed a class action civil lawsuit against the university claiming it had a hold on their financial aid, owed them tuition, and didn’t pay them at least one staff member.
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