Katherine Arnoldi: Fighting for Teen Moms

Katherine Arnoldi wrote her first article about equal rights for teen moms in a magazine called Hard Labor in 1976. She has won numerous literary awards since then. And her graphic novel, The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom, published in 1998, was named one of the top ten books of the year by Entertainment Weekly, was awarded two American Library Association Awards, and is being made into a major motion picture.
Katherine Arnoldi became a single mother when she was 17, living in Canton, Ohio in the 1970s. The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom chronicles Katherine’s journey through abusive relationships, toxic factory work, and the backlash she received as a single teen mom, to a college education at the University of Arkansas. Katherine has been advocating for the rights of teen moms to education and mobility ever since. And is currently a doctoral candidate in creative writing at Binghamton University in New York.
Busy Katherine emailed me her answers to my questions. Here’s Katherine…

What are some examples of discrimination many single teen moms face in the U.S. when it comes to education?
Through violations of the federal law, Title IX, which guarantees gender equity in education, and state constitutions and even local school board policies. Teen moms are being coerced to leave high schools. They are being told that the school “does not have insurance,� that the teen mom would “be better off just to drop out and get a GED� (high school equivalency), or they are being diverted to pregnant-teen high schools, which often are separate and not equal.
There is not enough day care on high school grounds. In New York City, we have 12,000 new teen moms every year and only 1,200 slots in the high school day care program.
There is not enough day care and housing on college campuses.
I have heard of teen moms being moved from honors programs to special education. The “No Child Left Behind Act� is one more reason why teen moms now face more discrimination than ever as schools, obsessed with their ratings, try to get teen moms to move to another school district or jurisdiction.
I was speaking at a homeless shelter in Boson and a teen mom with a 2-year-old on her lap raised her hand and said, “If I am hearing you right, I think I have been discriminated against. When I got pregnant I was a sophomore at a prestigious boarding school on the fast track to Harvard. They asked me to leave and I did so, politely. Then I spent my pregnancy moving from homeless shelter to homeless shelter and, well, you see where I am now.� Indeed I do. The homeless population is now 60% women and children.
What do you feel are some common misperceptions of teen moms that many adults and teens hold?
I myself was affected severely by the idea that others seemed to hold, most especially my family. The idea that I no longer had a chance, had possibilities, had a right to have dreams and aspirations. I was to accept that I no longer had equal rights in the world. Seems ludicrous that teen moms now face even more discrimination, degradation and the trivializing of the immensity of their problems, their courage and their determination.

Do you think there are particular racist and classist stereotypes that affect teen moms?
I always say, when I speak to teen moms, that we need to, with compassion, try to bring society and institutions up to our level of responsibility, our level of caring for others and good citizenry. If we have to begin class-action lawsuits, or sue an institution that is discriminating against us, then that must be so. But we will not be deterred in our insistence of our rights, or our dedication to ensuring that those who are breaking the law be brought to justice and begin to be in compliance with the law.
This is a matter of stance. One that places teen moms above the institutions which before often have put them in a one-down position, making teen moms beg for hand-outs or favors, while denying equal rights. And, often, when a teen mom enters a meeting accompanied by a lawyer and is in full knowledge of her rights, she is able to stop the discrimination, and make the institutions see the error of their ways.

New York Civil Liberties postcard

What legalized rights do single teen moms currently have for education and mobility? And where does the Bush administration stand on teen moms’ rights?
Teen mothers have all the rights of everyone else. Title IX guarantees equal access to all educational opportunities, regardless of gender. It has never been applied in any area but sports, even though there is not one word in Title IX about sports.
An example of what has happened with the Republican Administration and Congress is that the “Child Care Access Means Parents in Schools Program� has been cut from $25 million to $16 million. This program supports day care centers on college campuses and offers free or reduced fee day care to Pell grant recipients. Almost all the policies of the Republican administration, which supports the neo-liberal agenda, are harmful to all living creatures. Especially the most vulnerable, which would be young mothers and children.

How are teen moms’ rights to education on a global scale?
The neo-liberal agenda, supported by our country since the Reagan administration, and forced on other countries by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Association in the form of structural adjustment programs, have supported a few elite and have increased poverty worldwide. These policies, which we have witnessed in our own country, include lowering social spending such as spending on education; the signing of the welfare bill; privatization, which the Bush administration supports for education; lowering tariffs and protections; and fighting labor. All of these factors have contributed to the blight of much of our country and, of course, the most vulnerable among us—women and children, suffer the most.
In other countries, which have less of a social net, the effects are devastating. Single parenting is skyrocketing around the world. Now 20% of families in Mexico, Malaysia and most of the [Southern hemisphere] are headed by women.
You state on your website that many colleges “stipulate that all students must live on campus, but there is no housing for a woman who has children. When I called these colleges, most said they had never had a single mom or parenting student but if they did they would allow the parent to live off campus.� But finding affordable housing off campus is often very difficult. What would you advise a teen mom to do in this situation?
Go to my website and find a college, like the University of Florida at Gainesville, that has sufficient, very inexpensive housing and subsidized day care for Pell grant recipients. Most of the housing on college campuses was built to house WWII veterans returning on the GI Bill. Few colleges have added to this housing.
Go to the college and form single-mom support groups. Put pressure on the colleges to spend less on football stadiums and more on campus housing!

You state in your “Guide to Colleges for Mothers and All Students Who Are Parents� that there are some colleges and universities that do take teen moms into consideration. For example: “UC Davis takes Section 8 vouchers in the family housing� and “University of Indiana at Bloomington has a sorority for single moms.� Are more schools moving in this direction? And are they moving quick enough?
They will move much faster when law suits light a fire, so to speak, and spark their motivation.
You were a single teen mom in the 70s, and attended the University of Arkansas. Do you think much has changed since then for single teen moms in terms of equal education and professional development opportunities? Can you give some examples?
I had to fight the whole way through, getting a legal aid lawyer to get the financial aid to which I was entitled, and waiting two years on the waiting list to get into “married student housing.� The only thing that has changed is that they now call it “graduate student housing.� They have not changed the name to the more inclusive “family housing.� I think that says it all.
The problem is that teen moms themselves may not know their rights, or may have swallowed the propaganda that their life is over and they should get a job at a fast food restaurant. But it is better to apply to college before your income can count against your application for financial aid. I am grateful that I had the on-campus life experience at the University of Arkansas and the opportunity to engage in the intellectual and creative community. That is why I wrote The Amazing True Story of a Teenage Single Mom (Hyperion 1998), which tells of my own fight for equal rights to education as I struggled to find the way to college.
The Motherhood Manifesto by Joan Blades and Kristin-Rowe Finkbeiner says that non-mothers earn $11,000 more per year than mothers.
Looking ahead to the upcoming November elections, are there any women or men running for office or re-election who support teen moms’ rights to education and professional mobility?
No. Not that I know of.