I am a master’s degree student at UCSB. I have a 2-year-old son who is in the White Door of the Orfalea Family Children’s Center. Recently, I heard that the university is going to cancel the daycare fee for students. Please don’t!
My husband is a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA. I am not a TA or RA and don’t have any income. Thus, my family monthly income is only around $2,700 after taxes. We need to pay apartment rent ($856 monthly), my tuition ($4,319.56 quarterly) and my son’s daycare fee ($385 monthly). In fact, my husband’s salary is not enough to support our daily living. If my son’s daycare fee increases, we will not be able to afford it. Therefore, we need to consider sending my son back to China to live with his grandparents. The truth is, we really want to keep my son with us in the U.S. to watch every step of his growth. I think this is a simple wish common to all parents.
Please pass my situation and urge the school to support families like us. I would really appreciate it.
Sincerely,
Zhike Liu
I’m glad this is happening. Students shouldn’t have to pay to subsidize your lifestyle. Can’t afford childcare while you and your spouse are both in graduate school? Then don’t have any damn kids until you get your act together. This is no one’s problem but yours.
I agree with Tom… you have to be kidding me lady. Who are you suggesting should pay for your daycare? Are you saying you should get free or deeply discounted daycare? You must already know that the UC system is broke, right? So you can just be a career student and not work, while others pay bills on your behalf? Come on lady. Maybe you’ll have to put the Masters on halt and actually get a job. How unfair.
Just to clarify, the university has not proposed cutting funding for the Children’s Centers. Our lock-in fee was up for reaffirmation in the Spring Election. The lock-in fee funding is used to lower childcare costs for student parents. If the reaffirmation had failed this funding would no longer be available and the fees for student parents would need to rise dramatically. Thankfully, the fee was reaffirmed. The Early Childhood Care & Education Services department is extremely grateful to the student body for their continued support to help keep childcare affordable to student parents and to provide funding for student jobs… Read more »