Officials working with Alabama’s Prepaid Affordable College Tuition plan said the program, based on calculations, will likely be unable to pay for tuition past the fall 2011 semester and still provide refunds to the 44,000 families who bought into it.
Patti Lambert, co-founder of Save Alabama PACT, said this calculation is causing her to lose sleep at night.
“This is by far the most unfair thing I’ve ever been associated with in my life,” Lambert said. “If this program collapses, students will no longer be able to afford higher education and will be forced into a work environment where there are no jobs to be had, and major universities are okay with that.”
While Alabama legislators in both the state House and Senate have passed bills that would give $236 million to the program to help move it out of debt, a major difference between the two bills means the program faces an uncertain future.
The House’s bill, sponsored by Rep. Craig Ford, D-Gadsden, would place a 2.5 percent tuition cap on students who bought into the PACT program, while the Senate’s bill, sponsored by Sen. Ted Little, D-Auburn, does not.
UA President Robert Witt sent a campus-wide e-mail and automated phone call to students Tuesday, in which he stated that the University supports the bill that would not place a tuition cap on PACT students.
“If passed, [Ford’s] bill will burden 90 percent of our students and parents with much higher tuition increases than would otherwise be required, while creating a guaranteed lower rate for students in the PACT program,” Witt said in the e-mail. “We do not believe this is a fair or reasonable option, and the problem is avoidable because Senator Little’s bill treats both groups fairly.”
Witt said Little’s bill would allow the PACT program to become a solvent without forced, government-mandated tuition rates, and he asked students who agreed to contact their state legislators.
Despite the support of university presidents statewide, the Senate bill is not making much headway. Neither is the House bill, which has met steep opposition from the state Rules Committee, whose members oppose the tuition cap.
Lambert said that she expects many families to file lawsuits against the state if legislators cannot find a solution and the PACT program does run out of money in 2011.
“In the beginning, we insisted on a positive solution for the problem and felt in our hearts that our legislators would do the right thing,” Lambert said. “Every one of those guys is up for re-election this session,” Lambert said. “If they don’t come up with something to solve this problem, we’ll have to take it out on them at the polls. I’ll do everything I can to see that they are defeated.”
Ten days remain in the legislature’s current session, and Lambert said that she prays legislators can get something done.
“Now, we’ve got over one-third of families insisting legal action. Everyone has become upset and worried now that the end of the program is in sight.”
