This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.  In 2000, I
graduated from my first round of post-secondary education and
landed a job. My first annual salary was about 13 times more
than my entire education had cost me. It wasn’t that my job paid
so well, but that my education had been so inexpensive.  Now
that my husband and I are parents, we have some decisions to
make regarding our children’s education. We, of course, want to
find the best value possible…you know, an inexpensive but good
education. With the average student holding over $26,000 in
student loans, though, do “inexpensive” and “education” even
belong in the same sentence?  I keep hearing that it’s a
different environment now than it was when I got my first job
(and it is). But is it so different that an expensive education
at a four-year institution is the only option?
Vocational/technical schools  Although I later attended
traditional colleges, my first post-secondary education
experience that I referenced was considered a vocational school.
I