opinion

LETTER: College students shouldn't lose food stamps

This letter is to all of the politicians who can change the laws and for all of the college students who have encountered this problem.

My daughter graduated high school this year and entered college this August. I'm so proud of her and proud to be her mother. She still lives at home. We share my car and juggle appointments between her classes and until recently her work.

She is a full-time student striving for the highest GPA possible to fight for a spot in the nursing program, which only has a certain number of students they accept each year.

She stayed very stressed out, and at the times she needed to be starting a paper, a project or do lots of reading, it was time for her to go to work and bedtime when she got home. She has found this first semester difficult to keep up, and she felt she wasn't doing her best work for school and getting behind.

The problem is this: I am a single mother on disability, and yes, we do get food stamps. When I reported that my daughter had quit her job, I was told she would be taken off of the food stamps.

For some reason if you are a college student and are 18, you must be employed 20 hours per week to receive any food stamps, which is totally absurd. I still have to feed her, and all of the other students who are unemployed and can't qualify for food stamps are also being treated unfairly.

Young people who are continuing their education, trying to better themselves, have to eat whether they are employed or not.

DEBORA MANSELL

Clarksville