I recommend that parents get their children through college on the cheap. The best deal anywhere is for residents of Whatcom County, Washington. (I used to live there.) Bright high school students attend the local junior college, beginning in their junior year. Their work counts for both high school and college. They graduate at age 17 or 18 with an A.A. degree. The cost to the student? Zero. The county pays. That shaves off about $20,000 to $70,000 on a typical college education.
I recommend a variant of Whatcom County's system. Instead of attending college, almost any student can stay at home, work part-time as an apprentice, study on his own, and get a B.A. from an accredited university for under $10,000. I know of one home-schooled student who did it for $5,000 in six months.
I have written about this before. I send out a free report on this, "Thirteen Myths of American Higher Education and Why You Shouldn't Pay for Them." You can get it in 30 seconds by sending an e-mail to:
Few parents understand this strategy. They pay retail for their children's educations. The strange fact is, most parents who know my system just won't implement it. They seem determined to pay retail with after-tax dollars to fund their children's education conventionally, i.e., bureaucratically. It's hard to argue against convention. It's also very expensive not to argue.
What a student learns in college about economic survival is marginal, unless he studies medicine or becomes a pharmacist -- two well-paid services. He is far more likely to learn what it takes to prosper in business by apprenticing himself to a successful local businessman. But how many parents or high schoolers recognize this in time? Very, very few.
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