Governor DeSantis, Florida education officials discuss benefits of Florida Prepaid college program

ORLANDO, Fla. - Governor Ron DeSantis touted the benefits of the Florida Prepaid program on Monday, while urging families already enrolled to determine if they may be eligible for a refund.

Speaking from Lawton Chiles Elementary School in Orlando, the governor urged families to consider buying into Florida Prepaid, which allows Florida families to lock in state college and university tuition prices when their kids are young. The goal is for parents to save money on future college tuition by pre-paying throughout the child's life.

"We're going to make sure that folks have attainable higher education, high quality, of course, but attainable," DeSantis said. "We don't want to see folks having to go deep, deep into debt just to be able to try to advance themselves."

Earlier this year, the state authorized $850 million in refunds to families. In Tampa Bay, about 52,000 student plans saw cost reductions and roughly 25,000 were eligible to get about $2,600 back.

The governor said there are families across the state who still have not claimed their money.

"There's over 130 million dollars that is just sitting there for people to claim," DeSantis said.

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He also announced that Florida Prepaid is giving parents a $50 gift card when they open an account before Oct. 2.

DeSantis' news conference came during National College Savings Month. He said Prepaid Florida has a 35-year track record of helping more than 1.2 million Florida families save for college so they can graduate without burdensome debts.

Since DeSantis took office, the state has secured two rate rollbacks, with the first happening in 2020.

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