The astronomically rising costs of funding a college education as well as the establishment of predatory lending practices are the weapons of the mass destruction being used against the middle class’ ability to obtain a college degree. This is classic divide and conquer class warfare. However, there are cracks in the educational caste system and I am going to reveal a few strategies which might allow you to provide a college education for your children.
The economics underlying the obtaining of a college degree are as exploitative as any scheme which could have been devised by the most ardent dictators who are hell bent on creating a society of “haves and have nots”.
The economics of funding the post-secondary education system is predicated on wealth redistribution by making it increasingly difficult for the middle class to send their children to college as opposed to the wealthy or the poor. Many in the bottom tier of the economic strata get the government to fund elaborate financing mechanisms (e.g. Federal Financial Aid, Federal Work-Study, etc.) in order to pay poor children’s education at the expense of higher taxes for the middle class. And it is ironic that these middle class taxpayers don’t see any economic or educational benefit for their children with the taxes they are paying.
Conversely, the wealthy don’t blink an eye at spending $ 60,000 per year to send their children to schools like the University of Southern California. And before the bleeding heart liberals jump through their computer screen to attack me, please allow me to state that I am not opposed to helping poor children to become what God intended them to be. I am opposed to poor children getting access to a benefit which is increasingly being denied to middle class children. Both strata of socio-economic classes deserve the same opportunity. I am not socialist, but in this case, I would support taking back the bail out money and ending the war in Afghanistan and applying the saving to funding a free post-secondary education system. Oh, but that would not benefit the agenda of the elite, because their kids might get competition for meaningful jobs by children from the wrong side of the tracks.
You Want Answers? So, what is a middle class parent to do? The options are very narrow but there is a way to finance a college education at a fraction of the cost that young adults face when they set foot on a university campus this coming September. However, I do not expect that this opportunity will remain available indefinitely because universities are actively lobbying against the plan that I am setting forth here which will finance college education at a fraction of the cost. The strategies to reduce college costs will be covered later in this article, but first parents must prepare your child to be college ready at an early age if they want to reap the benefits of the tuition reduction plan.
The Middle School Years Form the Foundation for Funding a College Education Most college courses require a certain level of literacy, math skills and work ethic. If a child is encouraged to develop the critical and essential basic skills in seventh and eighth grade, a foundation is set in order to take honors classes in ninth and tenth grade. Honors courses often provide a student with the academic rigor that they will need in order to be prepared to master the skill sets needed to begin to take college courses at a young age.
The middle school years are the age that parents need to invest in tutors, if needed, and to look for alternative methods to prepare their children for college courses. For example, last year my son took a reading comprehension and speed reading course on Sunday afternoons at a local college designed for elementary aged children. We also pay a small fee for him to be tutored in math, science and literature.
To get your child college-ready, I strongly recommend the development of a study skills plan for your child. The one that I chose for my son is called the Study, Question, Read, Recite, Review (SQ3R). This was the study skills plan that I was taught in seventh grade, along with speed reading. I was able to utilize the SQ3R method starting in middle school and I successfully employed these study principles all the way through my post-graduate education. I teach a modified version of the SQ3R to my students on the first day of class of class and I am now beginning to teach it to my son. And no, I do not have a business relationship with the creators or publisher of this method. I use the system because it works.
I also suggest that children take as much math as they possibly can at an early age because math forces a child to use different parts of the brain. The earlier math is introduced to a child, the easier the mastery of math is obtained.
The brain goes through a definitive and major change between the ages of 11-12, and this is the time that a child should be taking Algebra as well as foreign language. During the period from six to puberty, scientists have found that the gray-matter spike shifts to the temporal and parietal lobes. These parts of the brain play a major role in language skills and spatial relations which are critical to math. The growth rate of these brain cells then falls off fast, which may explain why, as a rule, the ability to learn languages declines sharply after the age of 12. Therefore, the window of maximum opportunity is narrow. As children age, brain growth moves in a sort of wave from the front of the brain to the rear which results in an increase in gray matter in the front part of the brain right before puberty, which occurs around age 11 in girls and 12 in boys. This is your optimal developmental window to introduce pre-college learning experiences which are critical to later success. How do I know this? This is part of what I have taught at the university level.
I would also advise parents to get their children to take some career interest inventories and identify a career path as early as possible. Academic indecision and changing majors are two huge factors which will drive up the cost of a college education. A solid career interest inventory test that I have utilized is the Self Directed Search by John Holland. Again, I have no financial interest in this testing instrument.
As your child becomes college ready, it is time to move to the next step which involves taking dual enrollment college courses at their local high school.
Turning Eleventh and Twelfth Grade Into a Money-Maker If you live in or near a metropolitan area anywhere in the United States, you will find high schools which offer dual enrollment. Dual enrollment is a program in which a high school student takes a high school course which is also offered in conjunction with a nearby community college as a 3-5 credit college course. Parents do have to find the funds to pay for these tuition costs, however, these costs are relatively minimal as compared to the cost of a university education. Let’s look at a cost comparison in Arizona which is typical for students living in any state.
The University vs. the Community College It’s fun and it is sexy to go away from home to a major university. There is no parental restrictions, no curfew, there is an abundance of alcohol, a plethora of social gatherings and there is of coures the opposite sex. It is exciting, but it is a very expensive way to break away from parental controls. Middle class students should come to grips with the fact that there is a much more efficient and cheaper way to grow into adulthood than the four year university on-campus experience.
For many students, a four year university experience can produce the kind debt which can enslave a person instead of creating economic opportunity which is what education was intended to do. I have composed a typical cost comparison between attending a University or a Community College for two years.
For an incoming freshman who will be attending Arizona State University (ASU), the following are the cost estimates of attending ASU as published on the ASU website.
Base tuition and fees: $ 9,724 Room and meal plan (average): $ 9,094 Books and supplies (average): $ 1,000