Like everything else in Evanston these days, programs serving Evanston Township High School District 202 are under the knife as the city faces a nearly $4 million budget deficit. Potentially on the cutting board: a nursery providing day care for the children of 17 ETHS students.
Linked with Family Focus, Inc., an organization offering support programs for junior high and high school students, the nursery provides a convenient option for students who otherwise might have nowhere else to turn.
But City Manager Roger Crum said at a City/School Liaison meeting Jan. 17 that helping such a small group of beneficiaries is not a financially sound decision for the city, especially when Evanston is responsible for $105,000 of the $127,000 needed to fund the nursery.
Small group or not, what can be more beneficial to Evanston than caring for its future? It’s a tried and true argument: By providing teenage mothers with a shot at high school graduation, city and school officials are simultaneously taking care of these women’s children.
A 1999 article in Issues, a medical journal published by the University of California at Berkeley, reported that only one-third of teen mothers nationwide will graduate from high school. Those who remain single also run the risk of welfare dependency – 80 percent of unwed teenage mothers who do not hold a diploma receive welfare payments. On the other hand, only 8 percent of graduate teen mothers see welfare checks, the article said.
According to Allan Alson, superintendent for D202, three-fourths of the ETHS moms go on to graduate. He said that although the pregnancy rate might not be dropping, it isn’t increasing.
Programs such as these provide the community with a priceless service. Maintaining the nursery also gives otherwise disadvantaged children a helping hand. The same 1999 article said that children born to teenage mothers are more likely to be born underweight and are less likely to achieve later on in school. Under the supervision of trained adults at the nursery, these children may be able to regain needed ground.
Most importantly though, ETHS is a school continually plagued by disparity among its students, especially in the socio-economic levels of the student body and in achievement levels between minority and white students. Numerous board meeting have been spent trying to brainstorm solutions, with some positive results. How can a group like this turn its back on these students and their children, no matter how small the number of beneficiaries? Though whether to cut the program or not appears to be more the city’s decision than D202’s , the board, often an advocate for the disadvantaged, would be stepping out of character not to fight it. One hopes this is fact a board members realize.
Perhaps in the future preventive measures will prove sufficient to stop teen pregnancy. Maybe more high school kids will be sacred enough by sex education teachers and will decide to abstain. Perhaps, but not likely. Although statistics published by the National Center for Health Statistics of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services said the teen pregnancy rate dropped 19 percent between 1991 and 1997 nationwide, there is still a significant danger, especially in Illinois. The National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy published statistics placing only 10 states above Illinois in teen pregnancy rates for 15- to 19-year-olds in 1996.
Help must be maintained on the other end for students like the 17 ETHS teens. But more importantly, perhaps, help must be maintained for their children.