College costs weigh heavily

College expenses can be tough on any family. For the Murphys, that was triply so.

With three children in college in recent years, the Murphys estimate they’ve spent roughly $100,000 on higher education in the last three years. Their financial life has actually eased up a bit lately, with two graduations in the past two years.

A look at their budgets over the past few years shows the speed with which tuition has increased. They’ve had kids at University of Washington and Eastern Washington University. Their semester tuition checks to the UW went from $1,435 in 2001 to $1,700 in 2003 to $1,911 in spring 2006.

Still, Jeannette said, “You can’t afford not to go to school.”

Jim Murphy works as a chaplain at Sacred Heart Medical Center; Jeannette is an ergonomist and workplace safety expert. They put together as much as possible for college from savings and an inheritance, and their children help pay the costs as well, with loans, scholarships and part-time jobs.

The Murphy kids have seen a wide range of Washington’s educational institutions, from community college to EWU to UW, and Jim said he’s been pleased with the education they’ve received.

But he notes that he went to a private Jesuit college, Santa Clara, and paid $3,000 a year in tuition – coming from a middle-class family.

Colleges like that one are much further out of reach now.

“There’s no way I could have sent my children to the same school,” he said. “My concern is more and more people are just going to be priced out of it.”

- Shawn Vestal