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New State Fact Sheets and National Overview


New research from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) finds that every state in the country would see economic returns on investments in higher education for single mothers, who currently number nearly 2 million undergraduates in the United States. The publications share these findings and also provide policy recommendations—including making it easier for student parents to receive state child care assistance, encouraging greater collaboration between early care and higher education systems, and making campuses more family friendly—for supporting single mothers' college success.




Read the national overview, Investing in Single Mothers' Higher Education: National and State Estimates of the Costs and Benefits of Single Mothers' Education Attainment to Individuals, Families, and Society.


Find the fact sheet for your state.


Read the press release, "State Economies Would Benefit from Investments in Higher Education for Single Mothers."


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State and National Estimates Show High Return on Investment in Single Mothers’ Higher Education


The analysis of the costs and benefits for each state are available on IWPR.org. Findings from the national estimates show that:


Investment in college pays off for single mothers:

Single mothers earn roughly $256,000 more over their lifetimes with an associate degree and $625,000 more with a bachelor’s degree than what they would have earned with a high school education.
For every dollar they spend on their education, single mothers get back $12.32 for an associate degree and $7.77 for a bachelor’s degree.
Single mothers in some states see even bigger returns: for every dollar spent on her associate degree in New Mexico, for example, a single mom will get back $21.

Investment in supports that help single mothers graduate pay off for society:

Single mothers with college degrees pay more taxes. Among the cohort of currently enrolled single mothers who are expected to earn a degree or some college education, additional lifetime taxes paid add up to a total of $75 million in Wyoming, on the low end, and $9.2 billion in California, at the high end, when compared with the tax contributions they would be expected to make with only a high school diploma or equivalent.
Society saves on public assistance spending. In total, the cohort of currently enrolled single mother students who earn degrees or some college credit is expected to save society nearly $20 billion in public assistance spending. At the state level, savings for the cohort of single mothers enrolled in 2015-16 who are expected to earn an associate or bachelor’s degree or some college education range from nearly $21 million in Alaska to $1.7 billion in California.
Investing in supportive services for single mothers pays off. Investments made in child care, case management, and financial aid for all currently enrolled single mothers pay off multiple times over, for the country as a whole and for every state. For every dollar spent on child care for single mother students, the United States would get back $4.76; it would get back $5.48 on investments in case management; and it would get back $5.05 on providing additional financial aid to single mothers.


Find the estimates for your state.



Policy Recommendations


Institutions should:

Invest in supportive services that can help single mothers persist in and complete college, such as affordable, campus-based child care services, holistic case management, and programs that provide targeted support and information to students with children.
Remove obstacles to single mothers' educational progress in college policies, such as allowing makeups for absences due to child illness, and build campus environments that embrace and acknowledge student families.
Inform stuents that child care is an allowable college expense that can be considered in calculating finanical aid and assist them in applying for the dependent care allowance.
Collect and report data on students' parent status and educational outcomes to inform the design and implementation of interventions to increase student parents' completion rates.

State and Federal Policymakers should:

Invest in making quality child care accessible and affordable for student parents, by providing or increasing funding for child care for college students, removing barriers to students' eligibility for state child care assistance, and incentivizing greater collaboration between the early and higher education systems.
Require and provide technical assistance to colleges to collect data on students' parent status and educational outcomes.
Leverage federal programs such as TANF, SNAP Education & Training, Head Start/Early Head Start, and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, to support parents with low incomes to pursue higher education.



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Support for this briefing paper was provided by the ECMC Foundation.



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