[ti:Saving Money for College] [ar:Faith Lapidus] [al:Economics Report] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. [00:04.88]How much does a college education cost? [00:08.88]In the United States, [00:11.16]the College Board releases yearly reports [00:15.29]on prices at colleges and universities. [00:19.18]The group bases its findings [00:21.71]on "published" tuition and fees, [00:25.51]meaning the prices officially listed by the school. [00:29.69]Students might pay less -- for instance, [00:33.47]if they receive scholarships. [00:35.36]Nationally, tuition and fees [00:39.29]at public four-year colleges and universities [00:42.97]rose more than 8 percent [00:45.56]during the academic year that just ended. [00:48.85]The increase was seven percent if you exclude California. [00:55.02]California has about ten percent of the nation's [00:59.56]full-time students in public four-year colleges. [01:03.59]In-state tuition and fees averaged more than [01:08.56]eight thousand dollars nationally. [01:11.30]The average total charge [01:13.74]-- which includes housing and meals [01:16.55]-- was seventeen thousand dollars. [01:19.78]The total charge for students from out of state [01:24.11]was thirty thousand dollars. [01:26.60]Tuition and fees increased four and a half percent [01:32.37]at private nonprofit four-year schools. [01:36.31]That was still higher than the inflation rate. [01:40.59]The average was twenty-eight thousand five hundred dollars. [01:45.52]For-profit schools charged an estimated [01:50.35]fourteen thousand dollars in tuition and fees. [01:54.18]That was up 3.2 percent from the year before. [01:59.60]One way for parents in the United States [02:04.13]to start saving for college when their child [02:07.81]is still very young is called a 529 plan. [02:12.99]The plans are named for the part of the federal tax law [02:18.52]that created them in nineteen ninety-six. [02:21.56]All fifty states and the District of Columbia offer them. [02:27.03]Private investment companies operate most of these plans, [02:32.22]and each state has its own rules. [02:35.45]Many plans are open to families from other states. [02:40.28]Five twenty-nine plans offer different investment choices. [02:46.05]Families must decide how aggressively [02:52.27]they want to put money into stocks, [02:54.56]bonds or other investments that can rise or fall in value. [03:00.19]There are limits on how much families can put into 529 plans. [03:06.76]Another choice is called a prepaid tuition plan. [03:12.37]Parents can pay for an education [03:15.54]at a public college or university in their state [03:19.03]while their child is still growing up. [03:22.16]But what if the child decides to go to school [03:26.79]out of state, or not at all? [03:29.83]The money can go to educate another family member, [03:34.06]or the parents can withdraw it and pay taxes on the gains. [03:39.23]There are other ways to save for college [03:43.12]while also saving on taxes. [03:45.46]One way is to put money for a child [03:49.94]into what is called a custodial account [03:52.38]until the child becomes an adult. [03:55.12]And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report. [03:59.45]I'm Faith Lapidus.

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