College Debt

I rejoiced last week when my student loans sunk below $51,000. Yep. That's right. I have an expensive brain. And it was my choice. I didn't have to go to a fancy elite private university in one of the most expensive cities in America for grad school -- but I did. I have no regrets. Ok, maybe one, IT WAS EXPENSIVE! And yup, I am paying for my brain myself. No help from Mum and Dad. I am a big girl.

Had I not gone on to grad school most of my undergraduate loans would have been paid off by now. But even though I think higher education is expensive now I don't even want to know what the price tag will be when my kids are college-bound (and no, I don't have any kids yet, which only makes the problem worse).

This article in the New York Times discusses a study by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, saying that while tuition and fees for higher education increased 439% between 1982 and 2007, the median family income only increased 147%. I'm not good at math but that looks bad.

“When we come out of the recession,” Mr. Callan added, “we’re really going to be in jeopardy, because the educational gap between our work force and the rest of the world will make it very hard to be competitive. Already, we’re one of the few countries where 25- to 34-year-olds are less educated than older workers.”

Yikes Mr. Callahan (Patrick M. Callahan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education) what can we do? Turns out not much. Unless, that is, you live in California which is the only state to pass the grade in the center's study.

It costs upwards of $45,000 to attend Harvard for a year. One graduate class at NYU costs over $4,000. But kids have a choice as to where they go to school. I don't think a family should have to go bankrupt so that their child can attend Boston College. Let your kids shoulder some of the burden -- maybe then they'll think twice about flunking out.