Part of What To Do With Kids is figuring out how much to
save for their college funds. Much of
what I say below, about increases in college costs, is based on research from
the College
Board. Before getting started, I
want to make clear that I am a high school principal, so I work with students
on college funding every year. Right
now, in Michigan, the top public university is about $25,000 per year (cost of
attendance, which includes room, board, eating, driving home, and so on). My daughter will be in the class of
2025. I went on the MEFA site to see how
much it would cost to go to college when my daughter gets there (in 2025). I am pasting the results below.
Okay, I thought. A
cool $41,000 per year, raising up to $45,000 in her senior year. Maybe I need Michigan data. So, I found some Michigan data. It is pasted below.
Wow…I’ve thought that this was crazy as a principal, but now
I see I will need approximately $200,000 total for my daughter to attend 4
years at the University of Michigan. If
she needs 5 years, it will be $250,000.
For all three kids, I am looking at approximately $600,000 of
costs. To make that happen, I would need
to save about $2100 per month to fully fund college.
Ouch. We could talk
about why college costs are going up.
Time’s done several studies on it..here’s one. Then there was this locally in Michigan about
college administrators giving themselves massive bonuses for just doing their
jobs..here
is an inflammatory article about it.
Here’s the sad facts.
Professors are not making more money. College degrees are worth less. Question is…where is all the money
going? In conversations with dozens of
college professors over the last decade, it comes down to two things. 1.)
Administrative jobs and administrative salaries. While the rest of the world was hunkering
down, trimming their administrative staff, colleges continued to raise tuition
and hire more administrative support to make their jobs easier. If “The Office” was a college, Dwight Shrute
would have an assistant to the assistant to his assistant branch manager
job. He would just have to sign papers
and play Candy Crush Saga. The
assistants to his assistant would do his work for him. 2.)
Facilities- whether it is a student recreation center, a new basketball
arena, or a new lab building, public universities are spending money to keep up
with the proverbial joneses at a rate unheard of in this century. Some are needed. Some are not.
If you asked someone
who has $100,000 of debt coming out of undergrad, he or she likely would
say it is not.
Where does that leave us?
Here’s what we can do:
- Vote for politicians who freeze tuitions
- Look for college with low admin to student ratios
- Maximize high school options for college credit
- Save like crazy
- Oppose any reforms (from state or federal governments) without matching funds because those reforms almost always are passed on to students in the form of tuition increases
- Support a moratorium on building unless it is funded by private dollars or a decrease in administrative positions or salaries
- Support more public funding for colleges
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