Graduate and professional students are working to persuade legislators to change a state code that prevents them from getting subsidies for child care.
Lissa Knudsen, GPSA council chairwoman, said the Children, Youth and Families Department code offers subsidies only to undergraduate student parents.
Knudsen said GPSA created a child care advocacy group to determine the needs of graduate student parents. She said the legislators they approached with their concerns were supportive.
"We had gone to a couple of interim committees prior to the session starting, and the Committee on Welfare Reform Oversight, which is chaired by Sen. (Linda) Lopez, went ahead and had drafted a bill on our behalf," Knudsen said. "It stated basically that the CYFD cannot exclude anyone from receiving child care subsidies that is otherwise eligible."
The bill has not yet been introduced to the Legislature. The GPSA will review it at a meeting on Tuesday.
Knudsen said the support from Lopez helped the graduate students contact CYFD about the issue.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
"(CYFD) Secretary Dorian Dodson called a meeting, which I was invited to, and we negotiated the compromise," Knudsen said. "She agreed to change the rules and she would write (a) letter on behalf of changing the rules and we would help her to assess exactly how many people it would actually affect."
Dodson said in the letter that the CYFD was happy to provide support for graduate students. However, the state still has the final say in whether the code will be changed, she said.
"We all agreed we do not have sufficient data to assess the potential number of graduate students who would be otherwise eligible, likely to avail themselves of these services and not already enrolled and receiving assistance," Dodson said.
Knudsen said the child care advocacy group will work with institutions around the state to determine how many graduate students need and would use the subsidies.
"CYFD is going to send representatives to our next meeting on March 28 just to explain what they have agreed upon, and hopefully by then we will actually have some data," Knudsen said. "So we might have an idea of how many people are eligible and how much it's going to cost."
Knudsen said the group also wants to expand UNM's child care facilities but that the state's budget shortfalls have slowed progress on the initiative. The expansion might have been funded through the federal stimulus package that President Obama signed two weeks ago, she said, but this plan also failed.
"After much advocating, the University and the Department of Higher Education agreed to put the $6 million child care expansion on the federal stimulus list," Knudsen said. "And the day that that happened was the day that all education funding was cut from the federal stimulus package before it was passed."
Knudsen said some federal money might still be available but that the advocacy group is working with legislators and other concerned parties to find other ways to pay for the expansion.
"We would really like to have a funding mechanism that was similar to the way we funded The Pit," Knudsen said. "The Pit was funded with bonds and capital outlay, and the capital outlay we wouldn't have to pay back. Bond money is money that we pay that is tax-free, so even though it costs something, at least it's not incurring interest."
Director of Government Relations Marc Saavedra said he has been working with graduate students to find a way to fund the expansion.
"I understand that, through the child care advocacy group for the child care facility, a plan is already in the works," Saavedra said. "And I think there is still discussion on (whether) the federal stimulus money will be used for it. That's what we're waiting to find out - it doesn't look so good."
