Student parents often juggle bills for items from tuition to child care, but a bill proposed in the Oregon House of Representatives will help ease their burden.
There are 936 families on the waiting list for a grant that could help them afford to go to school and pay for child care. These student-parent families will wait up to 15 months to receive one of the 250 grants available each month to assist in paying for child care.
House Bill 2462 is designed to increase the amount of money available through the nationally funded Student Block Grant to $3.9 million. The increase in funds would come from state money. Officials of the Oregon Student Association, one of the primary supporters of the bill, said state funds will help cut the waiting list almost in half and provide more families with child care.
“Cutting the waiting list in half wouldn’t solve the problem of student parents not being able to afford health care, but it would be a step in the right direction,” said Joell Lester, the OSA interim executive director.
EMU Child Care Coordinator Dennis Reynolds said that even with a student discount, the students who bring their children to the EMU Child Care and Development Center are still paying $155 a month for daycare for children younger than age three. Any other daycare would cost $700 a month for children of the same age, he said.
“This bill will help parents a lot,” Reynolds said.
The bill is sponsored by State Rep. Jackie Winters, R-Salem, who has been working with the OSA and the Oregon Commission for Child Care on getting the bill to the House floor. This is the second time through for this bill, which did not make it to the House floor for a vote during the 1999 legislative session.
Billy Dalto, a legislative aide to Winters, said that no legislators oppose the bill for ideological reasons.
“The only problem with passing it is the cost,” Dalto said.

Dalto said the bill is an enhancement, meaning no money was added to the program in Gov. John Kitzhaber’s budget for the year. Kitzhaber did add $50,000 in state-generated revenues to the $1.9 million that is funded by the federal government, and he plans to add another $500,000. But supporters of the bill say this is not enough, and that the bill is needed to boost funding for student parents.
“The governor’s additions would bring the funding to $2.3 million, but the bill requests at least $3.8 million,” said Marc Overbeck, the executive officer for the Oregon Commission for Child Care.
Legislators such as state Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eugene, and state Rep. Vicki Walker, D-Eugene, support the bill and hope the funding can be provided.
“The age of students has changed over the years,” Walker said. “A lot of students now have kids, and this is a way to provide them with the means to an education and care for their children.”
Barnhart, who said he has supported the bill since he first heard about it and plans to sign on as a co-sponsor, also wonders about the funding issue.
“The key problem is: Can we find the money in our tight budget to support this bill?” Barnhart said.
Lester said the legislative budget is particularly tight this year, and the revenue for March was $100 million less than the Legislature anticipated.
“It’s always a challenge — the legislators have to sort through so many bills with a limited amount of money available,” Lester said.
Despite the financial strain, Lester said this bill would lead to future generations of better-educated and better-employed Oregonians by helping student parents afford their college education and related expenses.
Overbeck said as each grant spot is filled, a spot on the waiting list is also filled, and the demand for grants continues.
“We hope to have affordable child care for all families by the year 2010,” Overbeck said. “By expanding the Student Block Grant, it gives us a further piece of the mosaic.”