As you strive to achieve your academic goals or educate your children, your primary strategy will likely be to enroll in a school with adequate resources and a history of excellence. For example, when you secure admission to one of the eight Ivy League colleges in the United States, you’ll be a step or two ahead of becoming not only a renowned scholar but also impactful in the corporate world and entrepreneurship. Similarly, your child’s future education will be bright once they join elite high schools such as Phillips Exeter Academy or North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. Even with these ambitions, you might not live your dreams or for your child without sufficient disposable income.
In most families, a significant proportion of their monthly budget goes to housing (either rent or mortgage). Similarly, besides the tuition fees, accommodation is the second most expensive item on students’ lists. What does this mean to inflation calculations? A third of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is attributable to shelter. As a consequence, complete inflation adjustment by the Federal Reserve is close to impossible, suggesting that housing expenditures will continue to rise at approximately 3.5% yearly. Owing to this challenge, students in college have devised a new strategy for supplementing their pocket money. For instance, many buy term papers from EssayShark.com, which allows them to take part-time jobs or open small businesses because of the time saved in searching for referencing materials for assignments and homework. While there are ways to counter high housing costs in college, you must understand their effects on academic performance at all educational levels.
Positive and Negative Impacts of Housing Costs on Academic Performance
Considering that affordable housing reduces family mobility, it positively correlates with students’ better performance. People with access to reasonably priced rent or mortgages are unlikely to relocate because of foreclosure or eviction, among other financial challenges. Consequently, these families would retain their children in current learning institutions. This low mobility accounts for improved performance in schools because of reduced turnover. When parents relocate due to financial constraints, they often take significant time to settle and enroll their children in a learning institution. Consequently, these hypermobile students usually miss a lot of lessons, obligating teachers to spend a significant amount of their teaching time explaining past-thought concepts. Although the instructor might seem to promote education equity, they might not complete the syllabus on time, undermining even the academic performance of non-mobile peers. For example, scientific exploration in Chicago revealed that in learning institutions with a significant proportion of student mobility, the duration for completing the curriculum lengthened, lessons turned into review-oriented, and teachers struggled to assess their teaching methodologies adequately. Affordable housing indirectly reduces school turnover, contributing to high academic performance.
While family mobility seems to undermine academic progression, it might not be the case in every situation, especially for life upgrades in accommodation. Individuals moving to areas with improved school systems would most likely help their children acquire the best education. Usually, these learning institutions have a lot of exchange programs that act as a ladder to pursuing the degree of your dream in college. Similarly, improved school systems have various scholarships supporting bright students’ dreams. A notable example entails the Gautreaux litigation in Chicago, which obligated families to relocate to suburban neighborhoods from inner-city regions, resulting in better educational outcomes. In particular, many of these children enrolled in college, completed high school, and joined higher institution prep courses. Moving to regions with well-structured educational policies reflected by housing costs supports academic excellence.
Similarly, high housing costs strain students’ tight budgets, obligating them to commit extra hours to college-sponsored paid tasks. For example, the narrator of the article titled “I Was a Low-Income College Student. Classes Weren’t the Hard Part: Schools Must Learn That When You Come from Poverty, You Need More Than Financial Aid to Succeed” by Jack, Anthony Abraham recounted how working extra shifts in a gym during breaks was instrumental in covering unavoidable costs. While this strategy might seem wise, the student will lack enough time to relax and rejuvenate for the next semester. Mental and physical unrest often positively correlates with underperformance. In other circumstances, some might take academic leave if they feel that there is insufficient time to accumulate enough money. Therefore, high housing costs augment students’ living expenses in higher-learning institutions, obligating some to take part-time work that reduces their concentration in education.
Generally speaking, college students aren’t immune to skyrocketing accommodation expenses because of the prerequisite to balance academics and the hustle of looking for extra coins. Children from families with high mobility might underperform or excel educationally based on the available school system in the relocation region.
