Lone Star Pa and I are, financially, what actually qualifies as middle class in the United States (which of course is crazy-wealthy by the standards of the great majority of humanity, I'm aware). We often encounter lawyer/doctor types who truly think of themselves as middle class, but they are not. No matter what they think - they're not. We are (middle class, that is - we're not poor like the rich people who think they are middle class think we are). Two teachers. That's so very middle class. We are way better off than working class and way not approaching that place where the President starts raising the taxes. We're good. We're no money in the bank to speak of, no investments, yes have to worry about things like braces and car trouble and schools but living quite well everyday - middle class. We got very, very lucky and I never forget that luck is all it is.
And college. The price of college. It terrifies me to the marrow.
Not for the Lone Star Girl (although I confess to a newborn fear of the cost of college textbooks where she is concerned). I've made it clear that she needs scholarships to pay for living expenses if she wants to go away to school (like to Austin) and that she'll be living at home if she doesn't get them, but I know her tuition is covered. I purchased a Texas Tomorrow Plan for her when she was 4 - a ten-year plan. I've been paying $152 a month for it ever since and we should pay it off in August. It locked in the cost of 4 years at a state university in Texas for her at the price that it cost when she was four and those four years of college will be waiting for her when she's ready. I definitely think this was the smartest thing I ever did.
That plan had long ago ceased enrolling when the Lone Star Baby was born, though. She's the one I really worry about. Does anyone else think that the rate at which state tuition is going up every year is insane? It' going up by far, far larger percentages than any sort of interest on any sort of investment ever. It is already double what I paid. It will be more than double what people pay today - much more - when the Lone Star Baby is ready to go. I really think it is a bit of a national crisis when college is about to be out of reach of everyone except the extremely wealthy. It has been out of reach of the poor and working classes in many circumstances for a long time and now it is going to be out of reach for the children of teachers and nurses and social workers, too. Is this just a little crazy? I think so. I mean, rich kids don't usually want to be teachers and nurses and social workers - they want to make money. Where are we supposed to get more teachers and nurses if they can't send their kids to school? Maybe we won't.
I just signed the Lone Star Baby up for this generation's Texas Tuition Promise. This plan isn't as good as her sister's plan and it is way more expensive. We'll be paying $230 (something) a month until she's out of high school and it will only pay for 2-3 years of college, if it doesn't go broke and send us back our money. Things will be tight until August when we pay back off the Girl's plan, but then it should be covered by what we were paying for hers and for her braces which we just made the last payment on in January. It will mean that if the Lone Star Baby doesn't get into one of the charter or lottery schools we're applying for, it will definitely be our neighborhood school for her - we won't be able to even afford the cheapest Catholic one that only costs $250 a month to keep her away from all that testing. Taking on an expense like that scares me half to death - it really does. But. It will lock those 300 units in at today's rates.
I think that's the best I can do.
11 comments:
You are so smart to be building these accounts for your kids. I do hope that this country gets wise to what our real resources are, and moves back to making education affordable.
Thanks. I hope so, too!
I think about college tuition, too. My parents didn't save for my college because they thought that by the time I turned 18, the cultural revolution would have arrived and education would be free. I scoffed at that notion, but there's part of me that thinks, "Surely... surely things cannot continue at this ridiculous rate."
I hope they will get better but don't think I can bank on it.
Yeah, college tuition inflation is insane...I think it's been out of reach for middle class types for a long time (us teachers and state workers)...at least when I went to college my parents were poor enough and had enough kids I qualified for grants...any kind of regular income is considered fair game by the colleges. I haven't started a 529 plan for my kids (and am kind of glad I didn't, because isn't that one of the things that got hit in the economic crisis) and right now all my spare change is going to preschool tuition (which is bad enough)...so for my kids it's either earn full scholarships or go to plummer school (at least they'll be guaranteed a job that currently pays 4x what their "professional" mother earns).
First my parents, and then I took out loans. Enormous, crushing, gigantic loans. There was never any money to save, but it never once crossed my mind that I wouldn't go. My parents just taught me that if I wanted an education (and they assured me that I had absolutely no choice in this matter) then I would have to accept that debt would be a part of my life. And so it is and so it will be forever and ever. Amen.
My own parents are still paying student loans for their own educations. My father will have paid his off when he is in his eighties.
On a more hopeful note, community colleges are far less expensive and, at least here in NY, a good education (says the community college professor). Taking a year or two of community college classes then transferring to a four year school can result in significant savings.
Certainly community college can be great, depending on what you plan to study; we have a great one here. My eldest is on a path to be able to dual credit away a lot of what she might take in community college, though, so it will still come soon. She's applying to an early college high school but I don't know if she will get in, since we probably won't be seen to need it enough.
I couldn't even get guaranteed loans for my undegrad degree because my parents were deemed financially okay at the time (although they had 5 more kids still at home, two with significant special education expenses), so I don't think I can really count on loans as a strategy for the girls. I paid for grad. school with stafford loans but I finished that in just one year and the loans were still as much as I could afford to pay back each month on a social worker's salary.
It is shameful, isn't it, that any of us even has to think about this? Unjust. I'll likely send my kids to community college (maybe the same one where I work) when the time comes but maybe even that may be too expensive for us. My mother-in-law had my husband declare himself independent because she made too much and she was a single mom with a social worker's salary! My mother was also a social worker and my father a psychotherapist. I'm not sure why we qualified for so much help but there is not the same amount of help available today. Shameful and worrisome. :( You strike me as someone of such deep intelligence and compassion that I can't imagine that your children will not somehow find a way to get their educations by hook or by crook. They must have tremendous gifts to offer the world.
Thank you, Hystery - that's awfully nice. I, too, know that we will find a way, but I do not want the kids to be limited in what they study by what we can afford. I don't think they need to leave the state or go to private college or anything silly like that - UT is good enough for anyone, in my humble opinion - but I I want them to be able to choose a state school that has a decent major in whatever their gift to the world ends up being. And I don't think we should have to worry about it. In Louisiana, for heaven's sake, kids in the top ten percent of their graduating class get a free ride at a state university - or at least it was so when my cousin went and she's only been out a couple of years. That's not like Vermont or Massachusetts doing such a thing - it's Louisiana! We should be able to afford it if they can!
really have to give you props for being open about your situation. I don't know why folks shy away from stating their status/privileges. J talks about college, but we are not as nearly prepared as we should be. Then again, maybe we'll get a president who'll make education free!
I hope we do!
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