Hoverings

Last week saw non-stop coverage of the Gulf Oil Spill on news channels, and had the World Cup and U.S. Open dominating the sports world.  Amidst that crowded backdrop, a significant Knight Commission report on the future of sports and higher education received scant attention.  The report deserves a closer look and, in my view, our support.

Everyone knows that college is expensive. Yet very few people know that the cost of college can be insured.

The high cost of college has been building for decades. Withering subsidies at the state level are causing public universities to raise the sticker prices they charge students. Private colleges are also charging more, as their endowment funds still reel from the 2008 financial meltdown and continuing market uncertainty.

Thanks to the passage of health care reform, a record number of 3.2M college students will have the ability to remain on – or re-enroll in – their parent’s health care plan when they graduate this Spring.

Without question, this is a positive development for both parents and graduating college students. However, there are many nuances to the coverage provisions, according to Bill Suneson, president, Next Generation Insurance (NGI) Group, which operates GradGuard.com a specialist in “right-fit” insurance for college students and insurance for new graduates.

College parents are struggling to meet the cost of college these days, to be sure. And federal tax policies could be a lot more family friendly, to be even surer.

Yet, on this Tax Day Eve, with filing to occur no later than midnight tomorrow, it’s probably best to focus on the tax deductions and credits that college parents currently have, rather than the ones we want.