<prompt> Human: So Im redoing my finances somewhat and my girlfriends son is attempting to go to community college. Just wondering what other parents have done in this situation or how much is fair to put towards his education? How do you handle it, do you let your kid take a student loan out and just repay the loan or do you pay the principal on education directly?Im leaning more towards the repaying of a student loan since he is struggling passing high school and I will not be paying for him to sit around, party, and play video games all day while blowing off and failing class; so if he wants to not be saddled with debt, he holds up his end of the bargain - thoughts?  <response>: In an ideal world, youd have a 529 plan that youve been saving for 18 years. My parents saved enough to put me and my brother through college without a dime in loans, and our schools were expensive--45k-50k each per year. Now that I think about it, holy shit, my parents saved 400k in 18 years. Goddamn it OP now I feel like shit.Anyway, you can always just yank funding if his grades slip or are otherwise subpar. Hell get the message when he realizes that next semester he has to pay for himself. 