A college degree is increasingly seen as a key to success in the 21st century. Does that mean parents have to pay for it? From the time a child is conceived in their mother’s womb, it is the parents’ responsibility to provide the best life possible. In an effort to ensure this for every child, Georgia’s statutory law states, “It is the joint and several duty of each parent to provide for the maintenance, protection, and education of his or her child until the child reaches the age of majority, dies, marries, or becomes emancipated, whichever first occurs.” O.C.G.A. § 19-7-2. While wanting the best for their child, some parents insist, that college should be a top priority after high school, arguing that having a college degree helps one find a better job, earn a higher income, and build a better future overall. However, in Georgia’s statue regarding a parent’s duty of support, there is no mention of a parent’s duty to support a child beyond secondary school. More specifically, there is no mention of a parent’s duty to pay for a child’s college expenses. This is so, because in Georgia, parents are not required to pay for a child’s college or post-secondary expenses. The cost of college or post-secondary …show more content…
The custodial parent has to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application of Federal Student Aid) to determine if the child is eligible for financial aid, or any other scholarships and loans. The FAFSA takes into account parent income and, if a parent makes enough to provide financial support, not only does the kid not qualify for grants, they also don’t qualify for federal loans. Yes, there is a chance of them qualifying for a private loan; however, it puts the child at a disadvantage by starting their lives crippled by debt lowering their chances of a brighter future. Consequently, post- secondary child support could help with expenses and decrease the amount of
Education comes at a high price for this generation and not just financially. Going to college can give students plenty of debt with no promise of a job in return, which can set a student father back on their course of life. Young adults trying to start their lives by going to college encounter many setbacks. Today the average cost for a private university is $25...
"Parents with incomes below $40,000 were much more likely to say they couldn 't afford college compared to those with higher incomes. The unsettling aspect of this poll is that in all likelihood, these parents ' perceptions mirror reality," says Tamara Draut, author of "Strapped”. She talks about how most middle class families can 't afford to put their children into college. The highest education they can get is a high school diploma, which we all know in this modern world it cant get you a lucrative job to maintain your whole life. Most American don 't get the chance to develop their full capabilities through higher schooling due to lack of resources like funds to enable them see their full potential. People will say that education is meant for people who can afford to go. And already the government has made schooling from pre-k to high school free for all public school, so making community colleges free will cost the state about 60 billion dollars as said by the white house spokesman Eric Schultz . Education must not be limited to only privilege people,it should be universal for anybody willing to educate themselves to make their life better and help grow Americas economy reducing
For most families with teenagers applying for colleges there is one main question―what will it cost us? According to The College Board, the average cost of tuition and fees for the 2013–2014 school year was $30,094 at private colleges, $8,893 for state residents at public colleges, and $22,203 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. Although these numbers are averages, the actual costs of colleges are widely varied. A sad truth about this is that many students and their families don’t even know where all their money is going. Normally the money is paying for tuition; fees; housing and meals; books and school supplies; and personal and transportation expenses. As showed in the average cost of college, usually a school has a lower tuition for in-state residents and a vastly higher tuition for ou...
and tuition plays a major role in students’ decision for attending college. Students according to a 2008 national survey of roughly 1800 students who qualified to attend college 1000 students of those 1800 did not attend college at all. The main reason claimed by 80 percent of the “non-college-goers” was due to lack of money, more especially not enough grant aid. Although a student was well qualified to attend college having no financial aid made their choice to attend impossible. On the other hand, students who couldn’t receive enough grant aid sought other alternatives to go into college like getting loans. Depending on the amount of years one chooses to attend college it can rack up to an unbelievable amount. According to Edvisors, a financial aid website, “The class of 2015 graduated with $35,051 in student debt on average.” Imagine that! It’s no wonder that the students who didn’t receive enough grant aid chose not to attend college. It was because they did not want to accumulate a debt that in most cases they would have to pay throughout their lives, claiming that tuition cost is too much for
Steve Cohen shows the disparity between the rising cost of college and a family’s capability to afford it. Cohen explains “Tuition has risen almost 1,200 percent in the last 35 years, and the sticker price for many four-year private colleges and out-of-state public universities exceeds $250,000.” Moreover, he goes on to say that even at public universities, it is about $80,000 for four years for tuition and other college related expenses. Later in his article, Cohen explains how this leaves middle-class families in a very uncomfortable situation. The parents or other money-making entities in the household want their student to go to college and earn a degree, but now there can be an element of stress in figuring out how the fees will be paid for. Furth...
She told her to graduate from college because the mother having a college degree is the single greatest indicator of whether the children will be college-educated or not. Research agrees with this counsel. It shows that “A mother’s educational level has a profound influence on the educational choices of her [children]” (Madsen) It further shows that, “children of college-educated parents are healthier, perform better academically and are more likely to attend college themselves than children of those with lower educational attainment.” (What Good is a College Education Anyway?) Obtaining a college education provides an example for children to follow and improves their lives, which coincides with the goals of being a stay-at-home
Everyone knows that person from high school that just wasn’t cut out for college. It’s not a bad thing by any means, but if you’re thinking about heading off to college like many American teenagers often do, think about this: going to college can be a waste of both your time and your money. I’m not the first to say it, and I sure as hell won’t be the last. In Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill’s essay, Should Everyone Go to College?, the two authors take a strong economic approach to justify going to college. Owen, an ex- senior research assistant at Brookings’ Center on Children and Families and current research associate at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan center for research on the problems of urban communities, and Sawhill, the co-director
If you graduate from college, and want to start a family one day. Your choice in going will amplify your children’s interest in going as well. If you expect your children to go to college but you did not, then who is to blame for their poor decision? Going to college now can start a tradition in your family that could live on for decades. Research shows that someone with a bachelor’s degree makes almost two times more than one who does not have one. High school graduates make an average of $28,000 and college graduates with a four-year degree make $45,500. It is also proven that the unemployment rate is lower for people who have a bachelor’s degree. As a result high school graduates are more prone to living in poverty once out of high school. College should be a requirement because many college graduates earn more than high school graduates. Bill Gates is the most successful man in the world and he went to college. Carlos Slim is the second richest man in the world and he too went to college. What I am trying to say is that the top two wealthiest and successful people in the world have gone to some degree of secondary education. This is not complicated math. If you go to college you will increase your probability of becoming successful or becoming even more
... dollars aside from now until your future children determine if they would like to attend college or not. Is the ten dollars a week going to be worth it and are you going to be done paying for your college education as well? In the article, “America’s Most Overrated Product: The Bachelor’s Degree”, author Marty Nemko informs readers on aspects that are not commonly considered when pursuing higher education. Encourage that child to explore all of their options and inform them on not only the positive things you acquired from experiencing higher education, but the hidden down falls you dealt with like managing work loads and paying off debts. A student should be passionate about what they are learning and although it may not be in a classroom setting, sometimes choosing the path less traveled and not attending college can be the most rewarding experience known to man.
Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill, Owen a senior research assistant at Brookings’ Center on Children and Family and as well research assistant at the Urban Institute. Sawhill a co-director of the Center on Children and as well senior economic studies at Brookings. Expressed why is important to go to college after high school and what is the results of it in their essay “Should Everyone Go to College?” Owen and Sawhill made assertions of an ongoing debate that colleges can be pricey but down the road, our lifetime earnings will be more than what we paid the college cost and that sometimes individuals can’t afford to go for numerous of reasons.
College tuition is something that parents and students are very concern about. Every year universities raise their tuition. Some parents can’t afford for their children to go to college. Every student wants to experience the college lifestyle. Parents want their kids to have the best education but also want it to be affordable.
So the system that is supposed to lead to financial stability later in life causes families to use nearly one hundred percent of their revenue in a given year to continue the cycle for their kin. The main culprit in this treacherous cycle is, you guessed it, the government. According to Paul F. Campos in his article “The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much” he cites Sandy Baum saying, “it’s not that colleges are spending more money to educate students, it’s that they have to get that money from someplace to replace their lost state funding — and that’s from tuition and fees from students and families.” (Campos). Essentially, the government has been cutting funding over the last decade due to various reasons. The recession in 2007 was a major contributor to this loss of funding. In fact, Lynn O 'Shaughnessy writes in her article “Why college tuition keeps rising”, “Since 2008, when the recession hit, total public funding for higher education has declined by 14.6 percent.” (.O’ Shaughnessy). Public funding is a lifeline for middle and lower class families when it comes to sending their children off to college, with such devastating cuts it is nearly impossible for
A college education has become the expectation for most youth in the United States. Children need a college education to succeed in the global economy. Unfortunately for the majority of Americans the price of an education has become the equivalent to a small house. The steep tuition of a college education has made it an intimidating financial hurdle for middle class families. In 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a private university was $20,566 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was $28,500 for an increase of 38.6%. Similarly in public universities there has been an increase in tuition: in the 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a public university was $8,454 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was actually $20,770 for an increase of 145.7%. Most families who are able to save for college try to do so, therefore their children are not left with large amounts of debt due to loans. Nevertheless, families are only able to save on average around $10,000, which is not enough to pay for a full educ...
The price of a four year institution has soared over three hundred percent in the past twenty-five years or so. We would have to factor in general inflation numbers in order to figure out the real significance. After that, we see that in those twenty-five years, tuition has risen at a rate of two to four times that of the national inflation. That has not been the case with college, however, as enrollments only continue to go up. Ultimately this means that families are paying for a luxury they can no longer afford with money they don’t have. Families are looking at an expense that is thirty-eight
Fees and loans are too big of a load for young people to carry. A lot of students drop out do to the pressure of having to worry about all the loans they have to pay back after they are done with college. This should not be an issue to the student. According Iatham Emmmons, “Even worse, a large portion of students never receive funding at all due to the multitude of stipulations that must be adhered to in order to qualify for assistance. A major flaw in the current federal educational assistance programs is that the students’ parents’ income is used to calculate financial need” (Emmons 3). Even citizens who try to get help by applying for funding never end up getting it because they do not meet the needs required for the funding. Education should be p...