Last week, registration began for parents who want to purchase Florida prepaid college plans for their children.
On its Web site, the organization tried to cover a massive jump in its prices by saying, "You can't afford to wait any longer to lock in today's plan prices."
But for many Florida families, it's true: They can't afford it.
In June, UF's Board of Trustees approved to raise tuition each year until it reaches the national average - about $7,000 a year, compared to Florida's $4,000.
UF can increase its tuition by up to 15 percent each year until it reaches the national average.
This is called differential tuition.
According to USF's Web site, differential tuition is an extra fee that gives Florida's research universities - UF, FSU, USF, FIU and UCF - money to continue offering competitive academic programs.
It's not tuition in the traditional sense, as it doesn't directly fund the classes you're taking each semester like a scholarship would.
Bright Futures does not cover it.
To cover the differential tuition fees, Florida prepaid offers an "optional plan." This year, the price of the "optional plan" soared from $4,600 to $20,000 for an infant that will hopefully go to college in 18 years.
However, paying differential tuition is not optional.
According to an article in the Sun-Sentinel, "Florida Prepaid officials estimate that within eight or nine years, students and parents will pay more in differential tuition than they do in state-set tuition."
This is because universities can increase differential tuition every year until their tuitions match the national average, which is also increasing.
We understand why Florida prepaid raised the cost of its optional plan, but we cannot see how a 300 percent increase is fair to low- and middle-income families. Their children need and would benefit from prepaid the most.
The sudden price hike will deter people from buying the optional plan, which seems like it covers the worst-case scenario in this tuition hike-a-thon.
But what if tuition does not go up by the maximum projected amount that prepaid is charging? And what if universities don't increase tuition to meet the national average by the time Ma and Pa's future academian heads to college?
We did some math (yes, we have been known to do that on occasion), and the numbers do work out if the worst-case scenario comes true. But we disagree with Florida Prepaid's decision to increase the cost of the optional plan all at once.
By forcing new participants to essentially foot the whole hypothetical bill of tuition 18 years down the road, it makes the program basically pointless.
They end up paying the entire cost of sending their children to college, instead of locking in the current - and lower - tuition rate.
Florida Prepaid was created to save people money. Now all it does is allow people to spread out the payments over a longer period of time instead of paying it right when tuition is due.
However, we're willing to bet that people who are planning for their children's college 18 years in advance are also capable of saving that money over the same time period.
The increase in cost reverses the original intent of the prepaid program. It is supposed to allow lower income families the opportunity to send their children to college by paying lower tuition costs. Instead, it forces participants to pay the higher tuition expected in the future. It doesn't save them any money.
Instead of making college more affordable, this just puts it further out of reach.
