{"id":15544,"date":"2012-12-12T10:43:46","date_gmt":"2012-12-12T15:43:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=15544"},"modified":"2012-12-12T10:43:48","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T15:43:48","slug":"why-the-cost-of-florida-prepaid-college-jumped-350-percent-in-six-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2012\/12\/12\/why-the-cost-of-florida-prepaid-college-jumped-350-percent-in-six-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Why The Cost Of Florida Prepaid College Jumped 350 Percent In Six Years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

M GLASGOW\/FLICKR<\/p>

The cost of sending this little guy to a 4 year university is almost $54,000 through the Florida Prepaid College Plan.<\/p><\/div>\n

The cost of a prepaid, 4-year university plan<\/a> for a newborn in Florida has climbed more than 350 percent in the last six years.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Gov. Rick Scott heard during a presentation Tuesday by the Florida Prepaid College Board.<\/p>\n

In 2006-07, the prepaid cost for 4-year university tuition and fees was $14,616. Now, it\u2019s $53,729<\/a>, which comes out to $332 a month over 18 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 50 percent of the families in our state make less than $50,000 a year,\u201d Scott told reporters Tuesday. \u201cPrepaid being almost $54,000 is a big drain.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Even though Florida tuition has long been lower than the national average<\/a>, Scott doesn\u2019t like the way universities are playing catch-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt current projections, the cost of tuition and fees for a newborn, like my grandson Auguste, to get a degree in 2030 would exceed $140,000.\u00a0This is simply unacceptable,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have asked our universities to hold the line on tuition increases and because of our efforts, I am pleased the Florida Prepaid College Board was able to decrease their tuition inflation assumption for the next three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until last year, the prepaid board had been assuming a 15 percent tuition inflation rate when figuring price increases. That rate is now down to 10 percent. But Scott says it could be better.<\/p>\n

He asked the board to figure out how much prepaid tuition would cost if the price had risen just 3 percent a year for inflation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was $18,000, and I think it was $112 a month if you\u2019re going to do it that way. So, that\u2019s a big change,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

As the price of prepaid tuition has jumped, Florida\u2019s Bright Futures scholarships aren\u2019t paying as much as they used to<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So, Scott has asked community colleges to come up with $10,000 Bachelor Degrees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

He also wants universities to stop raising tuition. University presidents recently announced they will not seek any increase in tuition next year<\/a> as long as the state comes up with an additional $118-million in funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The cost of a prepaid, 4-year university plan for a newborn in Florida has climbed more than 350 percent in the last six years. That\u2019s what Gov. Rick Scott heard during a presentation Tuesday by the Florida Prepaid College Board. In 2006-07, the prepaid cost for 4-year university tuition and fees was $14,616. Now, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1014,637,1027,1046],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}