Why I Hate Pre-Paid College Tuition Plans

This Wall Street Journal article points out what I’ve been suspecting for years: Pre-paid college tuition is a scam!  It’s a scam or rather “ponzi” scheme just like social security, medicare and any other government program with similar characteristics.

This poor woman has contributed $100,000 under the false assumption that her grand kids college education would be taken care of but now the state is struggling to keep up and finding all sorts of loop holes to not fulfill their obligations.  Hmmm…..sound familiar?

Patti Lambert wanted to pay the college tuition for her eight grandchildren. So for the past 16 years, the real-estate agent signed onto the state of Alabama’s prepaid tuition program. She invested more than $100,000—a daunting amount but a good deal because the prepaid plan promises to cover tuition no matter how much it increases.

Or so she thought. Facing a severe funding shortfall, Alabama is trying to renege on its promise to foot the whole bill. Instead, the state wants to pay the average tuition rate, potentially forcing schools and families to make up any difference.

When my wife and I first got married, we went through our finances and my wife showed me some contributions she was making to a similar program for her younger sister.  I immediately told her to quit paying it and request a refund.  She got all of her money back and we put it in savings.   I told my wife that when the time came, we would help her out as much as we could but that ultimately the plan wasn’t going to work.   A few years after the state froze the program and significantly modified the plan, making many people unhappy.    My sister in law graduates this May and my wife’s been helping her along the way with tuition and other items.

I’m still waiting for the day when the exact same thing happens to social security and at the current rate of disintegration that should only be a few years away.