Massachusetts families grapple with rising college costs

Accounting for inflation, the average annual tuition and fees at a private, four-year institution has nearly doubled over the past 25 years, from $17,094 in 1990-91 to $32,405 in 2015-16, according to the College Board, a nonprofit created in 1900 to expand access to higher education.

Student loans have subsequently become a larger part of how parents are affording to send their kids to college, leading to a nationwide debt crisis that is spooking families and worrying higher education officials and lawmakers.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the country's collective student loan debt is now approximately $1.2 trillion.

Some said they've also noticed more parents embracing that more pragmatic approach, especially since the Great Recession has changed the way many of them make financial decisions.

Considering the potential hardship of those long-term costs, certified financial planner David Carr, president of the Carr Financial Group in Worcester, said he advises clients to think hard about whether college is even the right option for their student.

Sometimes that leads to misconceptions about whether certain liberal arts degrees — and liberal arts colleges that specialize in them — are worth it, said Amy Murphy, director of the College of the Holy Cross's Center for Career Development.

Other education experts said the state's new price incentivized transfer programs launching this fall, which will allow students even greater freedom to move between community colleges and state universities, should make low-cost, two-year schools an even more attractive option.

With college costs continuing to rise, financial planners, college officials and lawmakers are looking more to college savings accounts as a possible solution to the affordability problem.

A similar bill to the 529 legislation, versions of which were filed in both the House and Senate, would go a step further and establish a state match savings program, which would further incentivize residents to put away money for their children's college.

The legislation specifically would allow the state to put a $250 seed payment in each family's account and contribute yearly matching amounts of up to $250 to account holders making less than 250 percent of the federal poverty line.

According to a recent survey by Sallie Mae, a federal financial services company specializing in education, families are already starting to save more for college.

For Lynne Myers, director of financial aid at Holy Cross, if there was any casualty of the college debt crisis she worried about most, it was those low-income, first-generation college students.

[...] that population hasn't decreased at Holy Cross, she said— a promising sign and testament to the college's financial aid program, which commits to covering the cost gap for any students with an established need who otherwise can't afford to attend the school.

Other college officials and financial planners also pointed out that the costs at private colleges in some cases can be whittled down to public college-level costs through grants, scholarships and other aid, some of which is often offered by the colleges themselves.