Not everyone suffers during an economic downturn. Apple farmers and pencil manufacturers, for example, saw a surge in sidewalk sales during the Great Depression. Our current mess will benefit a few folks who were previously on the outs, too. In this case, C students.

All year long, Catholic schools around the country have been reporting a decrease in enrollment. At first, the soft matriculation rate was thought to have a lot to do with softer attendance on Sunday mornings, too. But the Archdiocese of New York just reported a drop of nearly 6,000 students. In Brooklyn, the plunge is as deep as 5%. Los Angeles schools are reporting that similar trouble is brewing.

For some families, that $5,500 tuition (the average for a Catholic school) could be better applied in other areas, so off to public school, that socialist institution that even hard-core conservatives love, the kids go.

Any parent can tell you that finding a good daycare for your child is a giant pain. Once you've figured out how you'll work it into your budget, you shop around for a long time looking for the perfect place, and then when you've narrowed it down, you spend months on a waiting list just to see if you'll even be offered the privilege of sending your kid and all of your money to the daycare of your choice.

At least, that's how it used to be. The sharp downturn in the economy has had a pronounced effect on the daycare industry, as struggling families can no longer afford it. Parents are pulling kids from daycare and either staying home with them or sending the kids to friends and relatives during the workday. The waiting lists that used to mean job security for all the daycare providers have dried up, and centers are offering part- time services as well as extended hours for parents who work odd or extended hours.

Some parents are quitting their jobs because daycare expenses exceed their income. The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies estimates that day care costs range from $3,380 to $10,787 per child per year. In every state in the country, the monthly child care bill for two children is higher than median rent payments and as high or higher than a mortgage. Those figures are even before factoring in the fuel costs of getting children to daycare, which have been the breaking point for many families, not just lower income.

For families that don't have helpful grandparents, there are no easy choices. Many parents are forced to take on second jobs just to afford the cost of child care while they're at their day jobs. Families are cutting back on child care "until things get better," but so far, things aren't improving.

Ken and Daria Dolan, America's First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

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Crisp fall weather means college campuses everywhere are being invaded by visiting high school seniors eyeing prospective dorms ... as their parents hyperventilate over the price tag.

Today's credit crunch is making the already daunting burden of paying for college seem even more impossible. Luckily, there is still plenty of funding available – if you know where to look. We have the scoop for you in our video below.

Looking to secure a loan for college to help cover those hefty tuition bills? Find out where you can get funding in Ken and Daria's special alert, only on Dolans.com.

A new British study says that "boring" playgrounds are stifling kids creativity and blames the problem on "kit" playgrounds that are mostly designed to contain children rather than inspire them. I don't see how that's possible. My daughter plays on one of the most boring playgrounds around. It is small and definitely uninspired, basically consisting of a set of swings and a multi-platformed jungle gym area with a small slide. And she loves it more than anything.

I've taken her to more imaginative playgrounds, but she has never had as much fun as she has at her own neighborhood park, running an ice cream stand from one part of the deck, making food out of crumbled leaves and sticks on a different platform and imagining that she is flying on the swings. She runs and plays and begs to stay when I say it is time to come home.

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Her play in this rudimentary playground is about more than just getting her outside for some fresh air and exercise, although that's extremely important as well. Childhood obesity is a continuing problem, and while the latest numbers show that the epidemic might have plateaued, that still leaves a lot of children out there with weight problems, and with the potential to develop diabetes and other serious conditions. Playgrounds should be revered just for providing a space to a little running and jumping.

Two-thirds of students have to borrow to attend colleges, according to FinAid. They leave campus on graduation day 2004 with an average $19,237 in debt, but some owe far more. About one-quarter borrow at least about $25,000, and one in 10 borrow more than $35,000.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were recently taken down for (among other things) taking advantage of the all the market had to offer for returns while meanwhile cashing in on a government backup for its loans. But their cousin Sallie Mae and lots of other private student loan lenders are still playing that game.

While some rates, even on existing student loans, have come down, many have not. My husband consolidated his law school loan shortly after graduating. He's stuck paying 9% for the rest of the loan.

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As boomers are looking forward to retirement, many are realizing that their kids are broke. Many young adults get into severe credit traps while in college. Average student loans among the two-thirds of college undergraduates who have borrowed rose an estimated 5 percent in the past year along, to $22,000. Many college students also graduate with credit-card debt.

What is a parent to do? You don't want your kids to default on their loans or receive a poor credit rating, but should you be on the hook for it? Yet many parents are finding that is exactly the predicament they are in. They co-signed for school loans and now have to pay them if the kids can't.

Here are some steps you can take to get/keep your kids out of debt.

• Look at state/city schools. Limit the debt by utilizing local schools, especially for undergraduate work. The expensive, private, schools are not the best investment for a liberal arts degree.
• Limit borrowing. Try to have your kids earn as much of their college money as possible. Add what you have saved and try not to take loans.
• Teach kids to live frugally. Once out of college, they may need to live modestly so they can pay down their debt. Good jobs are hard to find these days, so they have to know how to live cheap.
• Avoid using credit cards. It is too easy to caught up in spending more than is coming in. Make sure your kids pay their balances in full so they are not paying interest.
• Set up a repayment plan. Help your kids set up a reasonable plan to repay the debt. They have to realize that it is their responsibility, not yours.

Barbara Bartlein is the People Pro. For tips to improve your relationships, please visit: Marriage Tips.

CNN is reporting today on its web site that due to a miscalculation in the school district budget for Dallas, Texas, officials were forced to lay off 375 teachers and 40 counselors and assistant principals yesterday. Another 460 teachers were transferred to other schools within the district.

At least one girl was crying, in the article, as she said good-bye to her music teacher. "Why do you have to leave?" she was quoted as wailing.

The irony would be funny if it weren't so sad and serious: that a math error is hurting Dallas' school children. A math error? A math error has led to the dismissal of math teachers, and numerous other instructors, and it's going to make at least the Dallas area's educational system even weaker, and as I noted in a post just yesterday, when we have a weak educational system, our entire country suffers.

While the nationwide school program No Child Left Behind program is often maligned for its bureaucracy, it's incidents like this that make me see why it was created. When children are left behind, some of them grow up and get jobs. Like in the government, not to mention Wall Street, and even the occasional corporation like Enron. Suddenly, I'm starting to see that a lot of people, kids and grownups, would be better off if at least some adults in prominent financial positions were forced to retake some of their high school and college math courses.

Geoff Williams is a freelance journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

Somewhere around this time of the year, about 120 years ago, when I was a senior in high school applying for colleges, I could have used something like this service. Of course, with the advent of the Internet and other technologies, there are a million things I could say that about.

But I thought I'd tell people about CollegeZapps, a company I recently learned about. It's seeking to make a business out of that one tedious, hair-pulling, once-in-a-lifetime rituals: applying for colleges.

Before anyone wonders why I'm touting a science website on a personal finance website, I'll just say right off that...

1) It's free.
2) If our nation's kids don't get more interested in science, someday we're going to be living in a country that watches progress being made, instead of actually making it. And that would affect everyone's bottom line.

OK, so about this website. If you have a child who is really into science, you ought to direct them to the Sky Guy's website called, of course, SkyGuy.com.

Tom Vilot is the man behind the site, an artist, a self-taught engineer and a guy who is passionate about inspiring kids to study astronomy. He also volunteers at the Fiske Planetarium in Boulder, Colorado, in their K-12 outreach program.

So on his web site, which is only a few months old, the Sky Guy invites kids to send him a question about outer space, and then if he chooses the question, he'll answer with a video response on the website. And I have to think, especially if you're a young child, that getting a video reply from the Sky Guy--this guy with shaggy hair, a goatee and an engaging way of teaching--would seem pretty cool. Maybe he will have something of an impact on America's youth, if the web site catches on.

So what should you ask him? (Sorry, it must be said.) Anything -- the sky's the limit.

Geoff Williams is a freelance journalist and author who still hasn't gotten over the idea that Pluto is no longer considered a planet.

If you write for a living, then you know only too well, that proper spelling, grammar and punctuation are essential to your craft. If you write for work or business purposes, then you know that accuracy in writing is a critical part of your skill set.

Through your school years, your teachers must have tried to impress upon you the importance of proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation in your written work. What they probably didn't provide you with however, was a body of evidence to support their assertions. Few writing instructors actually provide examples of how one small word, or the placement of a comma, can cost hundreds, thousands, or even multi-millions of dollars.

An example of the tremendous power of one word, can be drawn from my own experience. It occurred deep within the text of a final divorce decree which I signed. The original document, which arrived from my former spouse's attorney, had a sentence in it which declared that I agreed to pay, "...all debts incurred by her..." Knowing that was not what we had agreed upon, I simply struck out the word -her- and inserted the word -him. As near as I can figure it, changing that one word saved me at least $11,000.

For parents and children alike, the name Scholastic is a household word. It means books and book clubs, book fairs, summer reading. It is - and certainly intends to be - a widely trusted name in children's publishing. According to the New York Times today, Scholastic will "no longer include chapter books based on the overtly sexy Bratz dolls in any of its school book clubs or fairs this year."

Scholastic books and brochures arrive mainly through the public schools. This leads many parents to expect that these books are good - or at least okay - reading for their children. We would like to think that a children's publisher, particularly Scholastic, would be committed not only to its sales numbers but also to its customers. Think again.

Scholastic pulled flyers for book fair titles like "L'il Bratz: Dancin' Divas" and "L'il Bratz: Catwalk Cuties" only after an eighteen-month fight by Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. Judy Newman, president of Scholastic Book Clubs, met with a representative from the Campaign earlier this year and said, "I can't be directed by anyone's special interest. That would almost be censorship."

As a writer, mother, children's therapist and constant reader, I consider myself at least reasonably well-informed on the topic of children's books.

As many WalletPop users have already demonstrated, while there's a lot of fun in coming up with great ways to save money, the real fun is in passing the ideas around. With that in mind, I was very impressed by New York State's "Stretching Your Dollars Effort" (SYDE).

Basically a bare-bones clearinghouse of thrifty ideas, SYDE allows New Yorkers to post their tips for saving on gas and groceries, as well as ideas for cutting the costs of home food prep and household expenses. It features text-based suggestions, as well as video and audio clips, some of which are a lot of fun to watch.

While a few of the ideas are specific to New York, most of them can be widely adapted to any setting, be it urban, suburban, or rural. More to the point, as good old-fashioned thrift has become a thing of the past, it's nice to be reminded of all the neat tricks and clever shortcuts that can add up to serious savings!

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. SYDE reminds him of the wise, thrifty, and nurturing grandma that he never had.

Thank God it's over.

Every June it's the same thing: my tightly-honed schedule comes crashing down around my ears, and chaos reigns supreme for the next three months.

All parents know what I'm talking about: Summer vacation.

Since I work from home, some working parents would assume I have it easy when school lets out for the summer. Anything but! Suddenly there are camps, a different one for each kid (and always on opposite ends of town) that I need to drive them to. Hours are spent chauffeuring, entertaining, feeding...all the tedious chores I get to ignore when they're happily in school, learning and playing with their friends, under the watchful eyes of professionals.

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Then there's the hit on my wallet, trying to find them exciting things to do during summer vacation. These camps add up. A week here, a week there. None of them ever a full-day. But the alternative, leaving them at home, is a recipe for disaster too. They will sit and watch TV and play Nintendo until they're zombies. With their friends.

It's not clear how a nine-month school-year came to be followed by a three-month vacation. Some say it stems from our rural, farm-dwelling past, when kids were needed for the harvest. But harvest is in the fall, and planting is done in April/May.

Last week, Natalie Dylan (not her real name) announced that she was auctioning off her virginity to raise money for her college education.

The 22-year old Women's Studies major has already received her BA from Sacramento State, but is now looking to finance her Master's degree. After debunking reports that he was going to be the Master of Ceremonies at the auction, Howard Stern stated that he had invited Ms. Dylan to appear on his show. Regardless, Stern's involvement has only been the latest twist in what has become a flashpoint for conservative social commentators.

The auction will be held on Tuesday, September 16, at Nevada's Bunny Ranch, a legally licensed brothel, and participants are encouraged to bid online. Ms. Dylan has stated that she will not surrender her virtue to any random wealthy man who contracts with her; rather, she will continue to accept bids until she finds a suitor with whom she shares "chemistry." The sad truth, however, is that her Cinderella fantasies will probably dissolve in the face of an amoral Russian oil magnate with very deep pockets.

Higher gas prices, low-paying jobs, and increasing school expenses has led teenagers to slow down their shopping. Long considered "recession-proof" spenders due to their discretionary income, many have had to confront the impact of a slowing economy. According to a survey conducted by BIGresearch in July, 60% of teenagers said they had become more frugal in the last six months--compared with only 50 percent of adults.

Even the usual fall bump in sales when college and high school kids go back to school didn't happen this year. Piper Jaffray released their semi-annual survey of teens that said that teen spending on fashion was down a whopping 20 percent from a year earlier.

This might be an unexpected benefit to the slow economy: parents saying "No." Rather than handing cash to over-indulged children, parents are looking at their budgets and setting limits. They are insisting that kids look for bargains and evaluate whether they really "need" something. This is actually very good training, because this is how the world really works.