Gregory Freeman: College Tuition Keeps Us Guessing. P-D 1/30/1996

Headline: COLLEGE TUITION KEEPS US GUESSING
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tue. Jan. 30, 1996
Section: WAR PAGE, Page: 9B, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

MY WIFE AND I have learned that we both suffer from a serious disease, one that few talk about but one that is affecting more and more Americans.
We are each suffering from what is called middle-class parents' lament. Its Latin name is highus collegius tuitionus, or something like that. We are in the early stages of this serious disease now. Our nearly 15-year-old son is a high school freshman. We still are dealing with the normal concerns of parents of teen-age boys, namely how to keep the refrigerator stocked on a daily basis (where do boys that age put away the food?), how to get any phone calls when almost every phone call is for the teen-ager and how to deal with moods that seem to fluctuate with the moon.

But we also find ourselves faced with the big problem: How will we get him into college?
If college tuition increased only at the level of the cost of living, I'm sure we'd be OK. But as most people know, the inflation rate of college tuition is tied to the inflation rate in Russia. Bread cost 10 cents a loaf last year and $2 a loaf this year? Yep, that's the way college tuition is jumping.

Having gone to college in the 1970s, I attended at a time when college tuition was cheaper than the cost of an education at today's cheapest grade school. For whatever reason, colleges and universities today have seen fit to raise their costs beyond the means of many middle-class folks. Even many who have saved for years - like us - are finding themselves unable to afford the costs of many of today's colleges and universities.

How expensive is a college education? To get an idea of the cost at many colleges, imagine paying cash for an upscale Buick with all the extras.
Now imagine doing it each year for at least four years. Then imagine yourself standing on a corner with a tin can.
That's how expensive college is these days.

We've thought about suggesting that instead of going to college our son attend the school of hard knocks. All of my grandparents went to that school, and they turned out OK. Besides, it's cheaper than the conventional college education. But most companies have gotten so picky. A hard knocks degree means nothing to them.

So our disease continues, with symptoms of nervousness and worry. I'm convinced that it's the reason my hair is turning gray faster than it takes most presidential candidates to change their minds.

I did a little digging, only to find myself even more depressed.
Since 1980, the cost of going to college has risen twice as fast as the cost of living. (It climbed 57 percent from 1981 to 1986 alone. The Consumer Price Index went up 26 percent in that period.) The jump in college costs has even outpaced the increase in medical care costs.
In the words of Dave Barry, I'm not making this up.

We fear that our disease will get worse before it gets better. As we try to cope with it, we sacrifice. I drive a 1980s automobile that even few thieves would want. I suspect that if I left it with the doors unlocked and the windows open in the city's worst neighborhood, I could come back the next week and find it left untouched, probably with a note that would read: "Please get this car out of here. It's hurting property values."
   Meanwhile, my wife has taken to cooking as a way of saving money. Yes, there was a time when our stove was something we kept in the kitchen so we could check on the time (before its clock stopped working, that is). Now, it gets more of a workout than Richard Simmons on one of his disco videotapes. Home cooking might not be more fun than going out to some fancy restaurant, but it's a lot cheaper.
   I'm not quite ready to give Richard Nixon's "Checkers" speech and talk about my wife's old cloth coat, but I'm close.
   We thought about selling our house and moving into a shack to send our son to college. Then, we figured, when he got out of school and became successful, he could buy us our dream house and make our investment completely worthwhile.
   But what if he wasn't successful? What if he wound up like so many other college grads - in a seemingly never-ending job search?

Back to the drawing board. Anyone who's got the answers on how to send a kid to college these days, let me know. We're still trying to figure it out.

Gregory Freeman's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Friday... <deleted>

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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