Senate plan would suspend Florida Prepaid College program

TALLAHASSEE — A Senate draft spending plan for higher education would suspend new enrollment in the Florida Prepaid College program.

The State Board of Administration handles the investments for the program, which allows families to lock in present-day tuition rates for their future college students.

Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, said the state is already on the hook should those investments not take care of the contracts.

"That's a huge liability — larger than the pension or anything we have," she said.

Lynn's draft budget also holds the line on base tuition for state universities but would reduce Bright Futures scholarships by $1,000.

It's $6.8 billion plan, a $320 million (or 4.5 percent) decrease from the current year. A large part of that difference is due to the loss of $329.3 million in federal stimulus funds.

A House plan released Wednesday raises base tuition and also sets higher standards to qualify for Bright Futures. The Senate plan takes neither of those steps.

The $1,000 Bright Futures reduction would be offset for most students by the $1,000 federal American Opportunity Tax Credit, said Lynn.

Lynn's plan also suspends indefinitely a program that promises matching dollars for private donations to certain university and college building projects and academic programs. That program hasn't been funded since 2007-2008 and has a backlog of nearly $500 million projects that have been approved for matching dollars.

This story was originally published March 17, 2011 at 3:14 PM with the headline "Senate plan would suspend Florida Prepaid College program."