Since 1988, hundreds of thousands of parents have done right by their kids, and saved big bucks in the bargain, by paying for tomorrow’s education at today’s rates through the Florida Prepaid College Plans.
Last week, when program enrollment got under way, some low- to middle-income parents learned their conscientious plans to pay for college had been bankrupted. The reason: A new surcharge that’s going to cost people who buy plans this year 300 percent more than it would have last year.
The Legislature two years ago tacked on the fee, known as differential tuition. It was intended to help bring state tuition in line with the national average. However, this correct but overdue move, while pumping much-needed cash into university coffers, has left families that can least afford it scrambling to cover the price spike.
Floridians should see their plight as a painful lesson of the consequences of inaction — in this case, on the part the state’s procrastinating pols.
Florida has long done college on the cheap — about $3,800 for the 2008-09 school year, roughly half the national average.
Politicians in Tallahassee considered Florida’s bargain tuition a badge of honor, rejecting significant increases or signing off on meager bumps. Because Florida’s tuition so far lagged the national average, the puny boosts barely kept schools above water amid rising costs. As recently as 2007 Gov. Charlie Crist irresponsibly vetoed a modest 5 percent tuition increase, a move this editorial board warned “could wind up costing Florida families in the long run.”
University officials warned the low sticker price handcuffed schools when it comes to attracting top-notch instructors, retaining the state’s best students, and joining the educational elite.
But lawmakers had their reasons for keeping tuition rates artificially low. With the tuition rate bound to Bright Futures, the popular Lottery-funded scholarship program, the state itself would have ended up subsidizing tuition increases.
Even that would have mattered less had the Legislature not also slashed university funding. Politicians finally relented but, rather than directly raise tuition, they ran an end around — passing a law creating differential tuition. And while the fee amounts to a second tuition, legislators slickly exempted the fee from coverage under Bright Futures — thus allowing themselves to dodge that rising cost while planting students and parents in front of the oncoming train.
Many parents were left slack-jawed after learning that prepaying the differential plan jumped from $4,600 last year for a newborn to nearly $20,000. Expect the fiscal heartburn to worsen.
Public universities received the OK this year to hike tuition by as much as 15 percent a year until Florida is on par with four-year public universities nationally. State officials predict parity by 2017. Eventually, differential tuition will outstrip the base tuition fee.
Advocates say the plans remain a good deal. If you can still afford it. Those who cannot will find it difficult to bear the equivalent of an 18-year car payment.
While schools must steer 30 percent of the differential fee into need-based financial aid, they should look to provide even more need-based aid to help families now unexpectedly in a college cash crunch.
Last month Crist observed, “The earlier you start saving for college, the better.”
Wise words. If governors and legislators had themselves planned ahead, budget-conscious parents might not now be suffering sticker shock.
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