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Save Alabama PACT Discussion Forum » Posts by Frank & Teri
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With great appreciation for all the time, money, and work that went into this huge effort to help our children succeed, we salute and commend the leaders and ALL others who made trips to Montgomery, sent letters and emails, and called the legislators, governor, etc. You are very special, caring people! THANK YOU!!!
Well said!
The AU ebill for first semester was lovely. I agree with Sinclair who wishes all PACT contract holders could have the good feeling.
PACT billed for fees and tuition. Scholarships covered room and food. AND money left over for books. No other money due. WOW! 
I'm probably too simplistic with this, but I see this PACT problem as mainly caused by poor planning and fund management. The state of Alabama/treasurer should be in better control of such.
Of the three events that Kay Ivey says precipitated the crisis, two should have been foreseen and planned for accordingly:
1. the increase in enrollees attending college the past several years (did the managers not look at their ages when they enrolled?)
2. the tuition increases. Isn't that the main reason we contract holders got into the program in the first place, because tuition has been increasing exponentially for years????
While the stock market drop was out of the managers' control, as the storm clouds gathered, they could have been moving money to safer havens if they were paying attention. Everyone should rebalance their investment portfolios on a regular basis.
Frank and Teri live in Hueytown. We've promoted PACT membership to friends for years. We've had 2 contracts, one since 1990 and the other since 1991.
We used it for our son at Montevallo 2001-2005.
We have a contract for our daughter graduating hs class of 2009. Glad to see the fall and spring semesters are to be paid.
I think we need to look HARD at the fund management in the future. As the economy improves, the amount should go back up, IF properly managed.
Since the penalties for withdrawing funds are so steep, if not rolled over to a 529 or some such, we're keeping our money in. If the BOD dissolves it, I guess then we'll have to change our investment, but she'll be using the money over the next 4 years, so not much opportunity for it to grow.
We have had PACT accounts for both our children. Our son was one of the first enrollees in 1990 at age 6. PACT took care of all his tuition and most of his fees at Montevallo 2001-2005. We paid summer-term fees because PACT pays fees only 8 times. We wanted him to get finished sooner and go summers. Not a bad investment for only $63/month.
We enrolled our daughter as a newborn in 1991, and were feeling VERY good about our $44/month investment until February. Fortunately, she has a full tuition/fee scholarship. But we're praying the PACT will come through so we can use the scholarship for room, board, and books.
Since not every enrollee is going to go to college this fall, some are only infants, I think if it can be managed properly and the economy improves, things will be OK. They don't have to pay out for everyone at once right now.
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Save Alabama PACT Discussion Forum » Posts by Frank & Teri