College Loans, The Price Of Procrastination

And making matters worse is that people don't seem to be saving what they should. A survey of 447 parents with varied incomes found that 54 percent have saved less than $5,000 for their child's higher education. Twenty-seven percent of respondents hadn't saved a penny.

The survey, conducted by the College Savings Foundation, a Washington nonprofit whose members include firms that offer 529 college savings plans, showed that 44 percent of those polled said they anticipate taking five to 10 years to pay off education debt. Thirty-eight percent expect to take at least 10 years to pay off average private college tuition funded through loans.

"These findings highlight a looming crisis for American parents and their children," said Chuck Toth, secretary for the College Savings Foundation. "It's dangerous for parents to begin seeing the financing of their children's college tuition as a second mortgage. As we have recently seen in the mortgage market, reliance on long-term debt can be expensive and precarious."

So now that you are likely depressed by this pricing and debt data, what are you going to do if you've got a child whom you want to go to college?

What you shouldn't do is panic. As the College Board points out, average tuition and fee figures do not describe the circumstances of most college students. Forty-three percent of public four-year college students are enrolled in institutions with published tuition and fees between $3,000 and $6,000.

Most importantly, don't whine about the cost -- do something proactive, like invest perhaps in a 529 college savings plan. In a 529 plan, your contributions grow tax-deferred, and when the funds are used for qualified higher education expenses, the money is not subject to federal income tax.

"Investing early and often can enable parents and their children to leapfrog a lifetime of debt," Toth said.

This is why it's important to keep reporting on the cost of college. Because maybe, just maybe, people will start saving something -- anything -- to help pay for their child's college education.