npr:

According to a recent government report, about a 1 in 5 college students in the U.S. are raising kids — that’s more than 4 million people.

Student parents often have higher GPAs than students without children, but they are also more likely to drop out, according to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. One of the biggest struggles these students face is getting child care, which has been declining on college campuses for many years, IWPR found.

A new proposal by U.S. House Democrats would expand the only federal program that helps: Child Care Access Means Parents in School, or CCAMPIS. The proposed expansion would quadruple CCAMPIS funding, upping it to $200 million. It’s part of a larger effort to overhaul current federal higher education law, which still has an uphill battle in Congress.

“This isn’t just about quality care for kids,” says Rep. Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Massachusetts who’s leading the effort to expand CCAMPIS. “This is the workforce. If you want to recruit and retain talent, if you want people to get an education to fill those jobs that you need in your business, then we need to invest in childcare.”

Vital Federal Program To Help Parents In College Is ‘A Drop In The Bucket’

Illustration: Nicole Xu for NPR