Canadian Personal Finance Blog

Archive for April 29th, 2008

Yesterday we talked about the valuable lessons that can be learned if a student pays for their education themselves, today we look at the alternate view that it is the parent’s duty (or a relatives duty) to pay for the student’s education.

Pros of Student Not Paying

• Student graduates with no debt load, and can start their working career with a clean financial slate. This is an incredibly valuable gift to any young person, and can put them far ahead of their peers financially.
• Whoever pays for this, does get to use the Tax Credit for tuition on their taxes (a stretch, but still kind of a pro).
• Student has more time to concentrate on their studies and not have to worry about their financial position and where their next meal might be coming from.

Cons of Student Not Paying

• The student has no concept of how much money their education cost, and how much work had to be done to allow them to go to school. In my case, I didn’t really realize the hard work that both my parents did to give me the luxury of not having to worry about paying for my education, until I had kids of my own.
  • Another underlying thematic premise of this journal that I really didn’t realize how hard my parents worked, until I had kids of my own.
• Lack of pride can happen, and a lack of drive is a derivative of this. If there was no “sweat equity” invested in the education, how does the student value their accomplishment?

Is either methodology the correct one?

Thus far I have had some very insightful comments from my readers, so tomorrow I think I’ll have a look at the comments and give my opinions in this area as well (as a Student who had parents who paid for the education (I paid for the partying mostly)).

Keep those comments coming, I want to hear your opinions, or even your stories, this topic is important to discuss.