College Illinois prepaid tuition program

My daughter is 11 years old. I started the program at age one. We have just about paid the full amount to college Illinois prepaid tuition program. I am very worried that there won’t be fund’s available when she is ready to go to college. Will there be any help or am I left holding the bag. Very worried.

Terry Says:   The best I can say is: “keep your fingers crossed.”  It has recently come to light that the CollegeIllinois prepaid tuition plan is not a priority obligation of the state.  However, on the sunny side, it might be one of the easiest obligations to fulfill.  That is, the state can give tuition vouchers to “pay” for attendance, based on the promises of CollegeIllinois.  And those vouchers would technically fulfill the obligation you purchased for semesters of tuition.  I am hopeful that the state will resolve its problems, which primarily revolve around the issue of pensions.  Then it could meet its other obligations.  Any failure to honor the CollegeIllinois promises would cause a massive default, and that would probably have to take place within bankruptcy laws, which have not been tested at the state level.  So I don’t want to raise any horror scenarios.  This is all untrod ground.  And don’t waste your time worrying, as I can’t envision the shutdown of the entire state college education system.  It’s likely that some arrangement would be made to fulfill the obligation.

Also, you should keep in mind that although the funds can technically be transferred to an out-of-state plan, there is now very little likelihood that the money the credits represent will be comparable to tuition costs at any other school.  So you might want to set additional money aside for your daughter in the next seven years, just in case.