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Enrollment is now open for families that want to get started on plan to put their kids through college. As Matt Galka tells us, the Florida Prepaid prices are historically low.

More than 100,000 students attend Florida colleges thanks to Florida Prepaid.  The college funding program allows families to pay monthly and save up for a child before they head off to college.  The recession allowed colleges to raise tuition up to 15 percent a year. Prices doubled, but that changed Wednesday.

“For example, last year at this time if you had enrolled in the four year university plan, you would have been looking for a newborn at 350 dollars a month.  This year you’re looking at only 173,” said Florida Prepaid Spokesperson Shannon Colavecchio.

Open enrollment is officially underway for the new reduced price plans.  Legislation cut tuition hikes earlier this year.

The plans for the most part only cover tuition, students will have to cover other expenses like transportation and books.

Financial consultant Greg Parsons says another plan, called the 529, might be a better option.

“If child number 1 doesn’t go to college, then it can be passed on to child number 2. Child number 2 doesn’t go to college, passed on to number 3. If none of them go to college, then the parents can use the money to go back to school if they want to,” said Parsons.

While prices were skyrocketing, financial planners strayed from recommending prepaid options. Enrollment dropped from 40,000 families a year to 12,000.

“We are hoping that these prices really will bring some families back to Florida Prepaid. Maybe they saw the prices rise in recent years, coincided with when they were starting families, and they might have looked at their budgets and they said “you know what, we just can’t do that right now,” said Colavecchio.

People who purchase a plan before 2015 will have an enrollment fee waived. Payments won’t begin until April. For the families that have already paid, more than 200 million dollars is being refunded to reflect the changes in tuition cost.