ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 7, 1997 TAG: 9703070069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
$200 million in contracts were sold to parents to lock in children's future college costs at current rates.
The director of Virginia's prepaid tuition program says the best measure of the initiative's early success is not the 16,000 children who have been enrolled, but the 80,000 phone calls her staff has answered.
The program's first sign-up period ends today with more than $200million in contracts sold to parents and others to lock in children's future college tuition costs at current rates.
``What I think is most important is that we were able to educate and inform thousands of families - to tell them, `Please just think about planning ahead so you won't be faced with something you're not able to handle,''' Diana Cantor, director of the Virginia Prepaid Education Program, said Thursday.
``If people choose this [program] as an option to lock in today's prices, that's great, too. But the real mission is to let them know they need to start planning.''
Cantor said she was ``really thrilled'' that more than 16,000 children were signed up during the first 90-day enrollment period. Her staff was still processing last-minute applications Thursday, so exact figures were not available.
Preliminary figures show that 93 percent of the participants bought contracts for four-year colleges, 5 percent for community colleges and 2 percent for a combination.
Prices ranged from $1,283 for a one-year community college contract for an infant to $16,699 for a four-year university contract for a ninth-grader. Prices for the second sign-up period next fall have not been set.
Gov. George Allen, who purchased the first two contracts for his daughter and son, said the program ``takes a great stride forward in helping keep higher education a real opportunity for Virginia students and families.''
Participants in the program can make a lump-sum payment or make monthly payments. Forty-three percent of those who signed up by today's deadline are making the entire payment at once, giving the state about $90million to invest immediately.
Nineteen percent will pay monthly installments over five years, and 38 percent - Cantor included - will pay monthly installments until the child enters college.
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