Do you OWE your kids a college education?

I apologize I laughed a little bit at yourpost,"nicotine and tattoos" .But in all seriousness I'm sorry you ended up blowing so much money. It sure seems you have a level head about the whole thing tho, good for you Cjen and best of luck!

J

Wow, . . . it doesn't take much to get Chilcoot excited!

Why not just have the Government test children annually to determine where they would best fit into "tomorrow's workforce" and decide who gets to be the veterinarians and cosmologists and entertainers and engineers and who gets to be the tomato harvesters and sewer workers and minions (*see below) and ditch diggers.

Life would be so much simpler if the Government made all the decisions for us. Oh, and don't forget Soylent Green too.

DonDiego prefers the messiness of a society where folks get to make their own decisions based upon their own criteria, . . . like through voluntary markets for services and goods and labor. But, . . . hey! What does DonDiego know.

_____Minions________________________________

No one is suggesting that students be prevented from choosing their career path.

The issue President Obama addressed today is how best to target limited government education funds. Sorry, but most of us want our government to give more help to those who want a bachelor in nursing and less help to those that want an associate in tatooing.

I know this is one of those times where you prefer to play your ignorant hillbilly rube character. But that's the gist.

There is one time I wish that the government had stepped in and had seen that Chilcoot and Forkush had received educations in relative, logical thinking instead of the education they received in illogical liberalism and socialism. Neither one of these two have ever posted anything here that has had any redeeming value.

Your last line said it best. I don't think enough people are willing to let their kids fail. Experience the work, success, heartache, and reality of life. Paying off debt. Making good (or bad) decisions and living with the consequences.

An alternative to attending college

My son was in a 4 year education co- op course back in the late 80's. Hubby & I split when he was going into
3rd year. We as parents helped him as he worked every summer & saved his money for school. The year he graduated
our daughter started university & again we all pitched in & helped. Our daughter completed her general BA here in
Canada but wanted to get her teaching degree. To go to the USA it would have cost all of us approx. $45,000.00 for
her one year. As it was she went to Australia to get her teaching degree & the cost was $20,000.00. We were all fortunate
That we had pretty good jobs therefore our two children came out of school with no debt. The two children pitched in with
Working hard every summer.

Diane

I work at a local private college for this specific reason (I am a Police Officer at a small municipality, and I work night shift as a Campus Cop . I get free tuition for my family - three daughters and my wife. I have been there since an opening came about in 1999. They are hard to get and most of the department is made up of police retirees or current officers. The tuition exchange program allows my daughters to choose from over 700 colleges (they need to apply, and have the grades etc... that anyone else needs to be excepted, and some of the colleges limit how many "tuition exchange students they will except). My oldest is a junior at a school 75 miles away, my second just started at the college I work at (not my choice, hers). When I took the job the kids were very young. We told them that if they got good grades through high school, using the tuition exchange we would get them through college debt free. My oldest we paid room and board for the first two years for (aprox. $20,000). The middle daughter opted to live at home so we got her a car instead. What we hope happens is that they can get good jobs in a field they enjoy and be able to start saving some of their salaries from the beginning and not be strapped with loans.

I said all that to answer your question this way - from the time they were young we agreed to do x (tuition) if they did y (good grades) so now we "owe" them what we promised. Hopefully what we gave them was a sense of commitment. And my oldest does not come home from college without saying thanks - it is worth it!

(for what it is worth, any employee of the college that works 24 hours/week is entitled to the program - I know each college has it's own rule, and for most you have to have been an employee for more than 5 years to be eligible).

Good article from the WSJ on why college costs are so high. With computer technology advancements I don't see why students even need to attend college classes anymore except to take tests. Just give then a dvd or access code to online lectures.

https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324619504579029282438522674.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

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