This article( link here) by Josh Mitchell discusses the idea of college-savings accounts. As we all know, attending colleges in the US can be very expensive. So having college-savings accounts could help parents and students in setting aside funds for future college costs which could lead to a reduction of student debts. The article states that a study was conducted by economists at two universities, and the study shows that:
College graduates “whose parents had college savings for them as high school sophomores are about 39 percent less likely to have student loan debt than graduates whose parents did not have college savings for them as high school sophomores.”
The study also finds that among those who took on debt, having a college-savings account led to lower debt burdens. College grads whose parents had college-savings accounts had $3,208.88 less student debt than graduates whose parents did not...
I really support this idea of saving for college because it is better to save in advance than borrow and pay with interest in the future. What are your thoughts on saving for college?
Most Americans save very little. Can the bulk of those who seek college for their kids save enough for college and retirement and medical emergencies? Probably not.
ReplyDelete47% of American families have no savings.
ReplyDeleteI agree that by having parents that save for college it does take a bit of a burden off of having to take out loans to pay for college. Although I agree that it would be extremely helpful, I don't think it is plausible because of Dr. McKinney stated previous that most Americans don't save or are unable to save to help their children pay for college due to different reasons. Personally, my parents were able to plan accordingly to help me pay for college and reduce the amount of student loans I would have to take out, but I don't feel that this the norm within our society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the article that it would be helpful to have savings before college and that it would help reduce student-debt after college which is becoming a problem for many graduates. However, I agree with Dr. McKinney and Carter that this is not practical for many families in the United States. With the rising cost of higher education, the short-term burden of savings may seem to pay off less in the long-run due to the fact that those savings would be paying a smaller portion of the college tuition.
ReplyDeleteWhile a college savings plan is ideal, I don't believe it is realistic as others have said above. It will be interesting to see what is done with inflation in college prices as at some point the bubble will have to burst with people defaulting on their loans if the prices continue to rise.
ReplyDeleteI thought Nolan made a really interesting point here. Is it indeed possible that inflated tuition costs have or is creating a bubble? I feel that the majority of Americans believe college rates are too high. It is clear that some kind of reform needs to take place so graduates aren't endlessly swimming in debt.
DeleteSaving for college is simply just not practical for many American families, let alone families in general. While that would be nice, in many instances people can only go to college if they borrow the funds and pay it back later.
ReplyDeleteThis article made me think of a couple possible outcomes if college tuition keeps going up. I feel if college prices continue to rise we will be incentivizing more of our youth to not attend college and take lower skilled jobs. As education is a huge factor in a nation’s long-term sustainable growth, inflated tuition is a clear threat to this growth. The other possibility I could think of is a boom in enrollment in community colleges. As universities and private institutions become economically unfeasible for a large percentage of people, more and more people may choose the cheaper college option.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Fatima, saving for college should be a priority for all but as others have mentioned it is not practical for a large percentage of families. Like Dr. McKinney stated 47% of families in the US are living on a day-to-day basis. Saving for them would mean not paying rent, not paying bills, or not putting food on the table.