Paying for Higher Education….
President Obama’s speech at North High school in Des Moines on Monday got me thinking…education is the great equalizer, how we pay for it is a completely different matter.
I have been planning for the day when I would send my first child to college, working hard, saving, and sacrificing. That day arrived just last week when I loaded up the car and dropped my oldest off at college to start the next phase of her life.
While I know I was blessed to have earned an education that clearly laid a path for my success, it is my responsibility to now pass on the drive to earn the same opportunity to my children.
My daughter distinguished herself from many of her friends this past year by working two jobs, saving what she earned, foregoing vacations, concerts and many things enjoyed by her peers and as a result put away enough money to cover much of her first year college expenses. She plans to have a job while in school, like her mother and I did, to cover any shortfall and finance a little fun. She is working hard to earn her education and when she achieves her degree she will be ready to use her education to contribute to the world in a positive way.
What I have learned is you appreciate what you work for far more than if it’s given to you, and if there’s no buy in, there’s no reason to care, and by giving away cash for classes we create yet another failed government program.
College is not for everyone — we all know that if we are honest with ourselves and attending a four-year institution is not a constitutional right. Trade schools and apprenticeships for manufacturing and construction jobs are widely available with positions going unfilled. We need to grow this group and prepare for the future because at this point we are losing our skilled trades base.
A liberal arts degree tells an employer you have the ability to learn, what you do while pursuing that degree will set you apart from the rest of the pack.
What I want this administration to understand is that cookie cutter financial packages won’t work, let’s be more precise when offering financial packages to prospective students. Let students who would be best served doing so pursue a non-traditional, secondary education, and let’s help them do that. But let’s not fund another program that drives us deeper into debt because it makes the administration feel good about checking another box.
Trust me, I’m all in favor of making college more affordable, but let’s use our college educations to figure out a way to make college loan programs accessible, sensible, and affordable.
