Ala. Judge Approves Plan to Settle Suit Over Prepaid Tuition Program

An Alabama judge on Wednesday approved a settlement between state officials and participants in the state's prepaid tuition program who had sued over the plan's payout rates, Alabama's treasurer announced. Under the settlement, families who paid into the Prepaid Affordable College Tuition Program will beginning this fall have their children's tuition and fee payments made at the rates that Alabama public colleges charged in fall 2010. Like many prepaid tuition programs, Alabama's has faced significant financial woes, and was projected to run out of funds by 2012 without some kind of cap on payments.