Have you heard about the tuition stabilization plans that many schools have adopted as part of their quest to make higher education affordable?

Schools such as College of the Holy Cross, University of Miami, and Vanderbilt University are enabling students to prepay anywhere from one to four years’ worth of tuition in order to lock in the current year’s cost.

So if you are entering college this year at a tuition rate of $30,000, you can prepay 60k to 120k and save thousands of dollars resulting from tuition increases over the next four years.

Aww, that’s nice.

Wait a minute. If one had the cash to prepay college tuition, it would seem that one wouldn’t have to worry about saving a few thousand in the long run, right?

So who does tuition stabilization benefit? Certainly not the little people. It does ensure that colleges get up to four years of tuition up front—as well as the assurance that it will retain students for the entire length of their degree program.

Can tuition stabilization even be considered financial aid? What do you think colleges and universities should do to help out instead?

In July, Reisa Resource blogged about loan forgiveness. Here’s a recap: Depending on your chosen career path after college, you might be able to get some of your federal student loans cancelled, or in financial parlance, “forgiven.” Here are some specific ways in which you can shave a few thousand dollars off your college debt:

Volunteer. AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, and Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) give their volunteers a considerable break on their student loans. Considerable effort is also required on your part, though, as these organizations require a time commitment of one or two years to achieve eligibility for loan cancellation.

Serve your country. Members of the Army National Guard can receive up to $10,000 towards their student loans through the Student Loan Repayment Program.

Teach. If you have a Perkins loan and are teaching in a school located in a low-income community, you can have a percentage of your loan forgiven through the National Defense Education Act. You are eligible to have 15% of your loan cancelled for the first and second years of employment, 20% for the third and fourth years, and 30% for the fifth year. (You don’t have to be a math teacher to figure out that it all adds to up to the 100% cancellation of your Perkins loan.)

There are other ways of having your loans forgiven, particularly if your work involves underserved communities. It never hurts to ask a financial aid officer about your options.

If you graduate from high school in Kalamazoo, Michigan, you are about to get a deal.

Philanthropists will cover 65% of tuition costs at public colleges and universities in Michigan for students who spend at least their high school years in the Kalamazoo Public School district. And Students who go all the way from kindergarten through 12th grade get a free ride.

Why?

The program wants to help produce an educated work-force to boost the economy and attract new homeowners. 

“Kalamazoo sits in western Michigan, a state that led the nation last year in unemployment as auto companies cut jobs amid slumping sales. Michigan’s unemployment rate was 7.2%, compared with the national average of 4.6%. The Kalamazoo area has been hard hit by job cuts at one of its largest employers, drug maker Pfizer Inc. Since July 2005, the company has eliminated 2,000 high-paying research jobs, reducing its staff in the area to less than 3,000.”

But over the past 18 months, with the help of this program Kalamazoo is on the up and up. Four-hundred families from 88 Michigan communities, 32 states and nine foreign countries have moved into the Kalamazoo school district, boosting school enrollment 12% to 11,530 this year from 10,337 in 2005.

Graduation rates have risen, too, jumping 21% to 567 students in 2007 from 467 students in 2005. (The district reports 485 graduates so far for 2008, but the finally tally won’t be known until summer school is over.)

Bills are paid by the program directly to the college. Roughly 1,200 students have taken advantage of the program so far.

Not from Kalamazoo?

Well sit tight, because other communities with bad economies are developing their own plans.