Getting a degree isn’t easy. But for parents — who make up approximately 22% of undergraduates — getting that sheepskin can be particularly complicated. They must secure (and pay for) childcare during typical work hours. Add college classes in the mix, to say nothing of having to do homework and study with a child in the house, and you can really start to appreciate how much harder parents have to work to earn their degree.
And if the Trump administration gets its way, it might be getting even harder for thousands of parents with the elimination of a program that helps students cover child care costs while pursuing a degree.
First reported by The Intercept, Donald Trump’s office submitted budget recommendations to the Senate Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026. Included among the many proposed cuts was the elimination of the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program.
The CCAMPIS Program was established in 1998 and first funded the next year. Its current budget of about $75 million supports the participation of low-income parents in postsecondary education by providing campus-based child care services. In any given year, this program supports parents — disproportionately women and women of color especially — in earning their degree, often from a community or technical college.
CCAMPIS works like this: universities actually apply to be part of the grant program if they have a high percentage of Pell Grant recipients enrolled. At that point, low-income students apply for their child or children to receive on-campus care provided through the program. In fiscal year 2016-2017 for example, 3,300 students were able to benefit from the program, even as 4,000 more children remained on a waiting list. In 2022, just under 400 schools received CCAMPIS funding.
But the Trump administration categorizes this program as “unaffordable and duplicative.”
“Funding can instead be secured through the Child Care Development Block Grant,” the proposal reads. “Further, IHEs [institutes of higher education] could offer to accommodate this need among their student population, and many do.”
But while the Child Care Development Block Grant is available, it is administered by states, which can implement eligibility requirements that can substantially limit access for those who would be eligible for CCAMPIS.
These cuts, to say nothing of the billions of proposed cuts to higher-ed in the “Big Beautiful Bill” for low-income borrowers — including the elimination of federal Direct Subsidized student loans and deep cuts to Pell Grants — could substantially diminish many would-be students’ ability to afford to earn a degree.
Education, particularly a college education, can help individuals and families rise out of poverty. While disparities remain between low-income graduates and their middle class and wealthy peers, overall low-income folks who obtain a degree have a better chance at upward mobility than low-income folks who do not.
