MemphisAg1 said:
The Collective said:
My wife's parents got divorced when she was 16. It was not a good / convenient situation - her mom had been a stay at home mom for many years. The fed/state government essentially handed her grant $, because everything was based off her mom's income when she attended A&M. It is a crazy system that her dad was completely ignored in the equation.
I think it's wrong to based a college student's financial need on their parent's income/wealth. They're an independent adult, and some parents refuse to pay for their kids' college on that basis. It's not a legal obligation for parents to pay for their offspring's college. That can really shaft a young adult who's trying to get an education.
Fwiw, I paid for all three of my kids' college because it was important to my wife and I that we help them get started in life. But that was a choice, not an obligation. I feel for these people that get caught in the trap of well-to-do parents who decide not to fund their kids' college -- or only a small portion -- yet the youngster can't get access to all the loans they need because of "rich" parents.
This here. Also there are all kinds of circumstances that make this a flawed system. What if you had Grandparents that had always said they would contribute and then don't? What is you tried to save money but not nearly enough because of a million different life situations, that money is actually used AGAINST you in determining what you pay. As you said many parents may make plenty of money but not feel like they should pay for college and some do, how is that on the kid?
In the end the kid is the one who pays the bill or is responsible for it not the parent unless the parent chooses to pay or is able to pay. You can also cause huge resentment within families when parents tried to save but didn't save enough. Then you have another kid over here that had parents that didn't even pretend to care about saving anything and they get a free ride. So the kid who had parents who tried to help and paid taxes having their kid graduate with a bunch of debt and the kid who had parents who didn't help, didn't save, and often paid minimal taxes graduating debt free.
It's socialism.
"The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help."
Ronald Reagan