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MONEY-SMART KIDS
Divorce and College Costs
by Janet Bodnar

My husband's ex-wife has custody of their 12-year-old son, and my husband pays monthly child support. Whenever I talk to him about saving for his son's college education, he just won't listen. He says he doesn't plan to pay because they had an ugly divorce and his ex-wife earns more. Does any law require noncustodial parents to pay college tuition?

Unless there's a specific provision in your husband's divorce agreement -- and it doesn't sound like there is -- he isn't legally obligated to pay for his son's college education.

That may sound like he's off the hook, but there are other considerations. Despite the ugly divorce and the fact that his ex-wife earns more than he does, your husband is still the child's father. In my opinion, he still has a parental obligation to help pay for his son's education.

And there's also a lesson here for couples who are going through a divorce. When you're working out a child-support agreement, include specific language about who will pay for college bills, and how much. You might, for example, stipulate that each parent will pay 50 percent of the tuition and expenses at a state college, or a share proportionate to each parent's income.

"Divorce agreements rarely lay out what the responsibility of each parent is," says Philip Johnson, a financial planner in Clifton Park, N.Y. "Sloppy language about higher education bills can come back to haunt you."

There's also the issue of financial aid when it comes time for a child to apply for college. If you're divorced, it's the income and assets of the custodial parent that are reported on the federal financial aid form. If the custodial parent has remarried, the income and assets of the stepparent count, too. The federal formula doesn't include the financial resources of the noncustodial parent.

Again, that might sound like good news for the noncustodial parent. But some schools deviate from the federal formula when doling out their own financial aid. They ask about a noncustodial parent's income and assets, and consider the resources of both natural parents.

In your case, this means that even if your husband isn't legally obligated to pay, his income and assets could be included when a school is putting together a financial aid package. Even if he earns less than his ex-wife, their combined income could mean less aid for their son. And the difference would have to come out of somebody's pocket.