Is Reality TV The New Way To Pay For College? One Production Company Is Banking On It

I remember the day I paid off my student loans. I felt like celebrating, only most of my extra cash had gone toward funding my education, so a party wasn’t really in the cards. Currently, we’re just a few months away from finally paying off my husband’s student loans, and while we won’t be sending out hand engraved invitations to some fancy fête, you can bet I’ll scrounge up enough for a celebratory glass of champagne. But no more than a glass, because although we’ve finished paying off our own educations, we still have the unknown amount of my son’s future education looming over our heads, and the concern over how we’ll pay for it all.

Raising a kid in the United States can be costly. It can cost a family upwards of a quarter of a million dollars to raise a child in this country – and that doesn’t account for inflation! With many families struggling to make ends meet, despite having two incomes, the thought of higher education expenses can seem not only daunting, but terrifyingly out of reach.

The reality is, higher education continues to increase in cost, while the average income has struggled to keep up. I can only imagine the number of zeros that will be tacked on to a tuition bill in 2025, the year my son will ostensibly start his college education. Actually, I don’t have to imagine. Projections based on expert information estimate that in 2025, the starting cost of a 4-year public university education will be around $150,000, while a fancypants 4-year private school could set us back around $350,000. Excuse me while I go rock in a corner and attempt not to pass out.

If my son is anything like his father or me, he might find himself in college pursuing various degrees for anywhere from 7-9 years. My head hurts just thinking about it all. And in fact, I’d be lying if I said one of the many reasons we’ve decided to have only one child is the vast expense that comes along with raising a kid today. While I’m sure my son will be taking out loans like we did, I’d still like to limit those amounts if possible. And, despite squirreling away money every month into an education fund, I’m still getting the vapors as I figure out just how in the heck we’ll be able to afford higher education at the rate it’s increasing.

Could the answer possibly lie in reality television?

Yes, reality TV. I’m not going to lie. Despite the abundance of quality, scripted television out there, I devour reality TV like a soggy bowl of Cap’n Crunch. It’s utterly saccharine, devoid of any nutritional value, but oddly satisfying. It’s my secret shame. I’m well aware that most reality TV shows are exploitive, sexist, sometimes actually scripted (the horror!), and occasionally racist. But is it possible that they might have some redeeming value besides making you feel better about your own parenting? (I mean, have you seen Dance Moms?)

I recently received an email from a production company seeking contestants for a new reality TV show competition. They were looking for 8 married couples to compete in a tropical location to win a sizable trust fund for their kids. I won’t lie and say that I didn’t consider this option for a hot minute. Trotting off to an exotic locale in hopes of coming home with a trust fund that could cover skyrocketing tuition costs? I could be swayed.

The pitch explained that they were looking for active and adventurous parents who wouldn’t mind having their physical stamina and mental acuity tested. I was picturing a milder version of Survivor where the winners could win not only the prize but the rights to remind their children that they stood on a small log in the middle of a Caribbean inlet for 4 hours (on one foot!) in order to beat out the other parents, just so they could attend the college of their dreams. I certainly saw the appeal.

Then I dug a little bit deeper and found out that the company behind this pitch has produced such “gems” as Beauty and the Geek, My Big, Fat Revenge, and Extreme Weight Loss. This was feeling less like Survivor, and more like the icky side of reality TV. Instead of clear cut competition, how far would parents have to potentially debase themselves in order to earn this money? How would things be edited to create heroes and villains when in fact there were just desperate parents hoping to help their kids get a leg up in this world. And what would the losing 7 couples have to show for it in the end?

Just the fact that I was even considering this as a viable option has made me realize just how great the financial burdens of parenting can be. I have to wonder just who will be chosen. Will these be families that truly need the prize money, or will they be folks who simply happen to make great reality TV? And where does it leave the rest of us parents who will be struggling with the actual reality of looming higher education bills in our future? The  most frightening part to me is that access to these institutions seems to be slipping from the grasp of more and more people – to the point where TV producers have now decided to cash in on it.

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