The Seattle Times reported Monday that as a result of a decision earlier this year to freeze tuition at the state’s colleges and universities, Washington’s prepaid college tuition program is back on “firm financial footing.”
You can read the full article by the Seattle Times here.
The article states that the Guaranteed Education Tuition program (GET) has been given an A rating for soundness from state actuary Matt Smith. Also, the committee that oversees the program voted Monday to freeze the price of a unit of GET at $172, the same price as last year.
Last year GET reported that their unfunded liability, or the value of all units sold when compared to the market value of all of its assets, was $631 million. Unfunded liability today is $160 million, a decrease of about 75 percent.
The Times reports that the Legislature’s vote earlier this year to freeze tuition at the state’s colleges and universities for two years allowed the GET program to stabilize. This action by the Legislature means the payout value for each unit will not change, allowing GET to catch up as new investors buy in to the program.
The GET program was established in 1998 to help families save for their child’s future higher education by purchasing tuition units at a set price and cashing those units in at the going rate when their child goes to college. The payout value is tied to the cost of one year at the state’s most expensive four-year public college or university. The fund will open to new investors on November 1.