College Savings Plans: A Bad Gamble

Autor/in	Carey, Kevin
Titel	College Savings Plans: A Bad Gamble
Quelle	In: Chronicle of Higher Education, 55 (2009) 35, (1 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0009-5982
Schlagwörter	Stellungnahme; Student Financial Aid; Paying for College; Finance Reform; Educational Finance; Financial Policy; Grants; Government Role + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Finanzielle Beihilfe; Studienfinanzierung; Studienförderung; Financial reform; Finanzreform; Bildungsfonds; Fiscal policy; Finanzpolitik; Grant
Abstract	With all the economic pain and consternation--surging unemployment, enormous corporate bankruptcy, trillions becoming the new billions--it's easy to overlook the fact that tens of thousands of families have suddenly lost a great deal of the money they socked away to pay for college. They lost it because public officials told them to risk their children's educational future in a casino run by idiots and thieves. Those officials did that because it was a way for them to score easy political points, avoid hard choices, and generally feel good about themselves. The author refers to "529 plans," the tax-deferred savings vehicles named for the section of the tax code that defines them. The plans were created by Congress in 1996. But their origins lie further back in time, in the 1970s and 1980s, when the price of higher education began to rise at historically unprecedented rates, settling into a steep upward trajectory that continues to this day. In this article, the author contends that in truth, there is no free money and never was. Everyone likes college, and everyone likes savings, so everyone just assumes that saving for college is an unalloyed virtue. But why should people in a still very wealthy society--despite the downturn--have to scrimp and save for decades just to have access to what should be considered a basic public service in this information age? College affordability is not a technically complicated problem to solve. The state and federal governments should regulate and subsidize public universities to keep tuition affordable for middle-income students, and provide additional need-based financial aid for low-income students. Two subsidies: (1) one for colleges; and (2) one for students. That costs more time, money, and political capital than policy makers have been willing to spend. So people end up with a witches' brew of uncoordinated and inefficient grants, subsidies, and tax breaks--to which new ingredients are added by the year. Instead of raising enough tax revenue and holding institutions accountable for spending money effectively, policy makers are constantly searching for the next free dollar and sound-bite affordability plan. When the bill comes due, as it always does, those who should have known better will be long gone. (ERIC).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10