I was selected to attend a free training to become a certified dental assistant by a wonderful group in Arizona. The Dental School actually accepted me to do this.  They obviously see the value in educating low income women with children to become self sufficient. I was on top of the world until  my case worker at DES informed me that I cannot go to any kind of school and receive subsidized daycare assistance from them.  I don’t receive any cash assistance but I do receive help for the daycare for my part time minimum wage job at a pizza shop. DES was going to cut off the daycare if I accepted this opportunity of a lifetime… the dental school training. They don’t see the value in me being able to earn a living wage once I complete this training that would help me to become self sufficient. They would rather I go back to my minimum wage job at the pizza shop and stay on the roles of subsidized  assistance. It’s a vicious cycle that keeps women like me living in poverty because I’ll never be able to earn enough to move forward.