Student parents at KSG criticize lack of support
Nikolaus Steinberg, MPP1
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It was 7:30 am when Allison Ohle¹s (MPP1) phone rang. In less than an hour, she would attend her first class at the Kennedy School, and her husband would start a new job in Boston. The nanny, whom they had hired weeks earlier to take care of their two-month-old son, Jackson, was due any minute. She was calling to say she had decided not to take the job. Ohle had no choice but to sling Jackson to her chest, throw her books in her backpack, and set off for her first day as an MPP.
Years ago, Ohle would have been an anomaly at KSG. When John Donahue, Raymond Verner Lecturer in Public Policy, graduated from the MPP program 25 years ago, there was only one student parent in his class. Today, there are more than 50 across all KSG
programs.
As the constituency of KSG student parents grows, the school¹s role in helping parents balance the responsibilities of academics and family remains unclear. Though student parents enjoy informal support from faculty and administrators, there is little to no institutional support for student parent needs in areas like childcare and debt repayment.
Finding affordable, quality childcare is an especially difficult task for student parents like Ohle. With only five Harvard-affiliated childcare centers in Cambridge, local openings are highly competitive
due to overwhelming demand from faculty, staff and students.
"By the time you hear in April that you¹ve been accepted to the Kennedy School, Harvard daycare for the next year is already full,"
says Ohle.
Rosa Klein (MPP1) moved to Cambridge a year before she was admitted to the Kennedy School when her husband started studying at Harvard Law School. Klein spent a full year on several Harvard childcare waiting lists before one of them offered a space to her now two-year-old son, Manu.
Even when student parents find a coveted spot, paying for it can be an additional struggle. Full-time care for infants costs up to $2200 per month in Harvard facilities, a colossal fee for students who are also tens of thousands of dollars in debt from financing their KSG degree.
Jon Swan (MPP1), who became a father two weeks before starting at KSG, said he and his wife calculated that it would actually be cheaper for her to stay at home than to work and pay for childcare.
"Unless you¹re making six figures, you wouldn¹t be able to afford it without serious debt," says Swan. The majority of student fathers interviewed by The Citizen said their wives stay at home to care for
young children.
This year, recognizing these prohibitive costs, Harvard University introduced a pilot program to subsidize the childcare costs of doctoral students by awarding grants between $1,000 and $5,000 per year. Master degree students, however, who comprise the majority of student parents at KSG, are not eligible for the scholarships.
Last fall, Klein, Swan and more than 40 KSGers formed a parents group that petitioned the Kennedy School Student Government (KSSG) to endorse a resolution signaling support for expanding the pilot program to Master degree students. According to MPP1 Class Representative Clare O¹Neil (MPP1), who authored the resolution, the KSSG Executive members decided not to debate the resolution with the broader student government.
"I think the KSSG should have at least been allowed to consider the matter," O¹Neil said. KSSG President YK Choi (MPP2) declined to comment.
In addition to concerns about childcare, student parents worry about their finances after graduation. The Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP) helps KSG graduates who are working in public service repay their student debts if their salary falls below $50,000 for singles, and $80,000 for married graduates. But LRAP does not account for the additional costs of raising children. Eligibility is calculated solely on the basis of income and assets, not expenses.
That means a single mother with two children who earns $30,000 a year is entitled to the same LRAP support as an individual with no children who makes the same wage. This is especially difficult for parents graduating with greater debt due to the high costs of childcare. The LRAP programs at both Harvard Law and Business Schools, by contrast, do account for the financial burdens of parenting when calculating the assistance for graduates.
Stephanie Streletz, Associate Director of Financial Aid at KSG, says that at KSG¹s current funding levels, its LRAP program cannot afford additional costs of administrating and financing an expanded program that accounts for the additional expenses of having children.
Student parents also say they lack access to depenable information regarding parent needs, such as where to find a good pediatrician. Susan McDonald (MPA/MC), a single mother who moved to Cambridge with her 18 month-old, said that while informational support isn¹t necessarily the school¹s responsibility, it certainly would help.
"If they want parents involved in the KSG community, that kind of tactical support would free up a lot of time," says McDonald. But according to economist Dan Levy, Visiting Assistant Professor of Public Policy, many of the sacrifices that student parents make are not entirely different from those made by other groups at the Kennedy School.
Non-parents also can face enormous debts, such as international students who don¹t qualify for low interest loans. While Levy is willing to make some accommodations for the special needs of parents, he says the school must walk a fine line in offering support to parents without being unfair to other students.
Meanwhile, student parents have found faculty and administrators to be very accommodating on an individual level. During
Ohle's first week of school, professors consistently welcomed her baby into classes while she and her husband were looking
for a replacement nanny. One administrator even offered to look after Jackson in her office when Ohle needed a break.
"Anything within their personal reach, they did it," she says.
And the administration has recognized the need to take a more formal role in providing support. One responsibility of the new Assistant Director of Student Affairs position is to be a point of contact for student parents.
According to Erin Ward Bibo, who took on the position, the school is crafting a relief policy that will give parents the opportunity to take a lighter course load over a longer period of time. For students like Klein and Ohle, both of whom are taking four classes to leave time for family duties, the relief program may be an attractive alternative to a full course load.
But the relief policy plan is taking longer than expected. Ward Bibo stresses the importance of getting it right. "That means making sure it doesn¹t negatively affect the housing, health care, financial aid, or anything else for these students and their families," she says. The administration hopes to launch the relief plan in time for next year¹s incoming class, together with a new resource page on the student services website for incoming parents.
In the future, KSG's competitors may be its greatest motivation for supporting parents. Earlier this month, Princeton University announced a package of family-focused initiatives to support student parents in its undergraduate and graduate programs. The initiatives, which include generous assistance for childbirth, dependent travel, childcare and even mortgage support, are designed to ensure that student parents can meet the demands of family life while pursuing their studies.
"The real issue is whether the school, and we as a society, can see the clear link between good parenting and positive social change," says McDonald. "When we support good parenting, we tackle many of the problems at the heart of public policy, and we model what we¹d like to see in society."
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