What to Consider When Having Children:Tuition Costs in 2030

      Although this blog is not focused on raising children or starting a family, I was shocked this morning when I say the headline on yahoo's homepage. While scanning over the page, I saw something that read, "The Inflation of Life - Cost of Raising a Child Has Soared". Because I was raised in a family that struggled and continues to struggle financially, I tend to pay attention to any headlines addressing the future, finances and the economy. While very focused on how raising a child is only going up in cost, I was interested to see that, in this article,  the topic of high school, college and earning a post-secondary degree is only a small factor in the list of growing expenses. And, funny enough, I had the forethought to include high school and post-secondary education in the list of child rearing expenses, whereas the author of the original article did not. 
  Below is the ENTIRE portion of this article written on college tuition. It doesn't even scratch the surface. 


     "There's no rule that says you have to help your child with college expenses, of course, but if you plan to do so, you'd better start budgeting for that as well.The average cost of a four-year college for in-state residents, including tuition, fees, room and board, climbed 6 percent for the 2011 and 2012 academic year, averaging $17,131, the College Board reports. A public four-year school for out-of-state students cost an average $29,657 this year, while four-year private colleges cost more than $38,000 per year. Knotts cautions parents, however, to save for retirement first before throwing money into a tax-advantaged 529 college savings plan. After all, there are no scholarships or loans for retirement."
     While I am not surprised about the cost of raising a child going up from year to year, I am surprised that this article even hints to the fact that you could have children that do not go to college. By this I mean that by putting so much pressure (financial pressure) on soon to be parents, children, even those on their way to college, will be expected to find the most inexpensive education they can. Although great for the pocketbook, education should not be measured in how much it costs or how far in debt the child will be to their parents. My opinion is not that every person is made to go to college or has to. It is, however,that if I am part of american society, than I grew up being pushed and pressure and stretched to my wits end in order to gain acceptance to every college I applied to. This falls even harder on high schoolers who know that unless they work hard, they will not be attending college because their families simply cannot afford it. Although tuition costs are rising, I hope that there is a dramatic change in the amount of importance this country actually places on education. Even if the changes are not made while I am still in academia, I would not wish this struggle on anyone else. 

One hundred and eleven scholarships applied to and counting.