Article: Financial burden falls on students with divorced or remarried parents

[LurkNessMonster]

This is probably something that we know intuitively, that kids from so-called broken homes often need to scramble to come up with the money for college. But this study quantifies that, according to an article in "Inside Higher Ed":

Students from families with divorced or remarried parents pay twice the share of their college education as compared to their peers whose parents remain married to each other, according to recent research published online by the Journal of Family Issues.

The researchers found that children whose parents were married to each other covered about 23 percent of their own college expenses, while children whose parents remarried had to pay for 47 percent of those expenses themselves. Those whose parents divorced and did not remarry were left to come up with 58 percent of the cost. “These findings are troubling for college bound students with divorced, separated, or remarried parents,” the authors say.

Turley said this disparate burden carries serious implications for the college success of students from divorced and remarried families. "A lot of these students are having to either get into a lot of debt or work more while they are in college, and both of those things are associated with a lower likelihood of completing college," she said in a telephone interview. "You can just see the way this story continues."

News: An Unequal Burden - Inside Higher Ed

[kelsmom]

I read this article earlier today, and I have to admit that I am not surprised. I have also noticed this, but I didn't really think too much about it. I have some social theories about why this may be, but I won't offer them as I may unintentionally upset some people. Many divorced/remarried people DO pay for their kids' college costs, and many married people do NOT pay for their kids' college costs ... so theories about why this particular phenomenon has been observed do not apply to all involved.

[bluebayou]

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[Brooklynborndad]

but they also found

"as a proportion of their income," which presumably ALSO excludes non-custodial parents income.

So they did find something, even if the numbers on absolute contribution by custodial parent is less than illuminating.

[Brooklynborndad]

"The problem with this "study" is that they ignored the non-custodial parent's contribution, if any; thus GIGO. I would have expected better from faculty at Rice and Harvard"

Perhaps then the study should have been done by faculty from Rice and Harvard, rather than from Rice and Wisconsin.

oh waits, hes a junior fellow at Harvard per insider ed, though the article itself lists him as at Wisconsin.

Anyway, I think the point of the article was mainly to look at contribution relative to income, and to look at the effect of certain state child support policies.

A study is not bad just because it does not answer the question YOU want it to ask

[momofthreeboys]

If they count all the adults in a student's life then the study makes sense. If you have two divorced parents, each remarries you have 4 potential working adults connected to that student. I would think the divorced parents, neither remarried would fall similarly to married parents - 2 adults connected to the student. If one of the original marriage marries then you have 3 adults connected to the student. You don't divorce your kids, you divorce your spouse. If you marry someone with kids you add those kids to your family. It's just the way it is.

[Erin's Dad]

Without the actual analysis to review I can't tell what it really means. It reviewed the data from one year and I have no way of knowing how the subsample was selected. Do more children of divorce attend CC, or private schools? Did children of married families get more scholarship funding? Too many things left unstated in this summary.

[mom2collegekids]

You don't divorce your kids, you divorce your spouse.

Some people do. That's why some states have gone to forced garnishing of child support as routine.

And, how many NCP's celebrate the day that their child turns 18 because they think that they don't have to spend one more penny on their child.

I was very disgusted by some neighbors. The father had a child by a previous marriage. This couple had 2 kids from the current marriage. They were so excited when the child from a previous marriage turned 18 so they wouldn't have to pay any more money. For some odd reason, the divorce decree didn't stipulate that the support had to continue til high school graduation (the boy turned 18 Dec of his senior year.) When I asked if they would "cut-off" the children from the current marriage on their 18th birthdays (even though they would be in high school as well), they looked at me as if I was crazy. When I asked about college costs for the 3 kids, it was clear that their intent was to help the 2 from the current marriage with no help for the child from the first. Ugh...just gross. After this exchange, I just couldn't bring myself to be friendly with these neighbors again.

[emeraldkity4]

When I asked about college costs for the 3 kids, it was clear that their intent was to help the 2 from the current marriage with no help for the child from the first. Ugh...just gross. After this exchange, I just couldn't bring myself to be friendly with these neighbors again.

Sounds like my brother, only he has only one kid with his 2nd wife. ( although they also adopted his wifes nephew so he could immigrate when he was 14)

[showmom858]

mom2collegekids - I have a good friend who's ex is the opposite of your disgusting neighbor. My friend and her ex have one S. My friend never remarried, but her ex remarried and has two more kids. My friend's S just entered college and her ex is paying for everything. He is a wonderful father.

[shillyshally]

Showmom I know a Dad or too like that too and think it is wonderful they are always so involved - in both time and money. Unfortunately my ex is like Mom2's neighbors - we did however have it in the decree through HS graduation so his joyful email letting me know he was done waited until the day after graduation. And when filling out financial aid forms they were (ex and his wife) useless - my ex's wife was mad they asked for any of her info since as she said "she has no legal obligation to contribute". Fortunately we sought options that would not adversely impact my oldest D and we learned a lot for D2 and S but it put a lot of stress and worry into the process.

[mom2collegekids]

However, on the bright side, I have a friend whose 2nd husband is happily paying for the college education of her child from a previous marriage. Her 2nd husband is a gem and is joyfully looking forward to the day his stepson gets his college diploma. (the ex-husband won't contribute a dime. )


Hopefully, this article and other research into this area will encourage divorce decrees to put stipulations in about paying for college. I realize this can't be cut and dry, but when a couple has gone to college themselves and had a expectation that their children would go to college, it is reasonable to include some kind of stipulation in a divorce decree. The intent to pay for college (or at least contribute) should not change just because the marriage ended.

[sk8rmom]

Hopefully, this article and other research into this area will encourage divorce decrees to put stipulations in about paying for college.

Honestly, for this to really be effective, I think some type of language should be in place so that the money is paid into a trust account by BOTH parents. First, it's very difficult to get funds from an unwilling ex, even with a court order in place. It can take years and colleges are not very forgiving when it comes to past-due balances. Also, there are far too many custodial parents who simply don't use the support payments they receive for the intended purpose. I've known many CP's who instead count on support payments to finance their own lifestyles (ie. new cars, trips, clothes) instead of using them exclusively for the child's benefit. I often wonder if that's why some NCP's resent paying child support - it seems like a form of alimony!

As a custodial parent, it makes me ill when these kids find out that they not only have no college funds, but neither parent is willing/able to meet their EFC. I saved half of my fairly low support payments for the past 12 years in 529's for my kids...the other half gave them opportunities that my budget couldn't support, which I made sure they thanked him for! It wasn't easy, but the years of regular saving make a HUGE difference when it comes time to pay for college and my ex is very grateful that he's not expected to come up with large sums now that they're in college.

[greenwitch]

Could some of the discrepancy be due to the fact that the costs of divorce have eaten up much of the ex-couple's savings? If their financial aid assumed a certain amount of savings based on their income, and it wasn't there anymore, the costs of that contribution would be passed along to the student.

[Gardna]

greenwitch's point makes a lot of sense. The kind of acrimonious divorce that sucks up a lot of money is probably the kind that results in a non-custodial parent who doesn't really want to spend any money on the child's college, which just makes it worse.