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Last updated 5:52 pm CT November 20, 2009.
State Program Eases Worries Over Rising Tuition
There's no question that every year, hundreds of Illinois college students worry not only about their classes, but how they're going to pay for them.
"My daughter had to drop out of college you know because of the lack of funding and myself as a parent wasn't able to come up with the money that she needed in a short period of time," says Marion resident Vernon Ganzer.
But there's help, on Sunday registration began for Illinois' 529 prepaid tuition program.
It locks in today's tuition prices, whether kids are headed to college in one year...or ten.
"They buy those semesters based upon today's prices, in effect allowing them to sort of avoid tuition inflation, and make sure that they're going to have semesters available when their students are ready to go to college," said ISAC spokesperson Theresa Tracy.
Experts predict a baby born today will pay 180-thousand dollars for four years of college. Right now, students at most state schools pay about 52-thousand dollars for a college education. It's a price lots of local parents are eager to lock in.
"You know to have something like that when my daughter was born, I believe I would've jumped on it," said Ganzer.
"They need to do something, especially for the future of our kids. Especially with the way the jobs are nowadays, you have to have some kind of diploma or some kind of bachelors degree just to get your foot in the door, and if you don't do that now, then your kids not really gonna have a future," said Sean Griffin, a local father of two.
By Andy Waterman
awaterman@wsiltv.com
Now: 1258769090
