TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Next week is the deadline to enroll in Florida's Prepaid College Program savings plans, which allow parents to lock in today's tuition rates years in advance of their children going off to college and start saving for it.
Florida's plan is one of seven nationwide that is backed by state dollars. Its chief executive officer, Duane Ottenstroer, says there's a plan for everyone.
"We also have an investment savings plan, which is a normal '529' plan, and that's open to people outside of Florida."
Since it began in 1988, about $1.3 million students' families have enrolled in the Florida program, making it the nation's largest pre-paid tuition savings plan. However, Ottenstroer says, only one in 10 Florida children is enrolled. Critics of this type of savings plan say it does not guarantee admission to a Florida school - or the quality of those schools.
The program competes with other tax-deferred college savings plans, Ottenstroer says, but those plans are based on investments that often face upheavals in the stock market. He says the Florida Pre-Paid College Program is a safer bet.
"Tuition cost today makes the program just extremely important to the normal family. We still have programs that, for as little as $100 a month, will pay a newborn - over 18 years - the tuition at any one of Florida state colleges."
Parents who want to sign up, he says, have only until Jan. 31 to get their applications in.
Plan details are online at myfloridaprepaid.com.
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A high school educator from Pennsylvania has been named National Teacher of the Year, one of the highest honors in the field.
The prestigious award is for educators who have demonstrated excellence in the classroom and exceptional commitment to their students.
Ashlie Crosson, who teaches advanced placement language and composition, English 10 and survival stories at Mifflin County High School, said she is honored to receive the award. Inspired by great teachers growing up, she has been an educator for more than 14 years and called teaching one of the oldest and most rewarding careers, and one the world will always need.
"I had amazing teachers who valued me and invested in me and made me feel confident and smart and important," Crosson recounted. "If you can do a job where you get to make other people feel like that, that's a good way to spend a life. And I think that's what we try to sort of focus on or celebrate for students."
Crosson also teaches the journalism program, which publishes the school newspaper and the district magazine. She has had a positive effect on her students' academic and career paths as some of her former students now work at the local newspaper.
With the Trump administration proposing to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, Crosson acknowledged policies may shift with each new administration but her students' needs will always remain her top concern.
"In my classroom and talking to my colleagues, we are still focused on what's going on in our classroom," Crosson emphasized. "Because that's our job, day in and day out, and we know that there's going to be ebbs and flows and changes, because that's what it means to be a teacher. But the thing that doesn't change is your students' needs, and so those will always be our priorities."
Looking to broaden horizons for both her colleagues and students, Crosson started "MC Goes Global," a travel program bringing learning to life through international trips. Her students do not just stick to books and essays, they dive into real-world research on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and even build websites, blending global awareness with hands-on learning.
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Pennsylvanians will rally in Harrisburg on Tuesday urging lawmakers to boost public school funding.
More than 1.7 million students are enrolled in Pennsylvania schools.
Susan Spicka, executive director of Education Voters of Pennsylvania, said her group is among those backing Gov. Josh Shapiro's budget proposal.
It would mean more than $500 million for underfunded schools, $75 million for basic education, and $40 million for special education.
She added that every student deserves a well-funded education and warns that cuts could leave some school districts behind.
"Our message is going to be loud and clear that we need the State Legislature to adopt the entire, full budget package that Gov. Shapiro has proposed," said Spicka. "The full package means that there will be a positive step forward for every school district."
Spicka said they're also urging lawmakers to set a timeline to meet constitutional school funding requirements and to reject private school vouchers.
Her group, along with the PA Schools Work coalition, is leading the rally with support from parents and community groups. The state House and Senate must pass the budget by June 30.
While Advocacy Day is about gaining state lawmakers' support for this year's budget, Spicka said the groups also strongly oppose efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
She added that they're very concerned about how possible federal funding cuts would affect Pennsylvania students.
"We acknowledge that federal funding is an essential funding stream for public schools, especially for the schools that have students with the greatest need," said Spicka. "So, any cut in federal funding will have an enormous and negative impact on students who have already been the furthest left behind in Pennsylvania."
She estimated that a few hundred people will attend the Harrisburg rally. They have meetings planned with lawmakers, will hold a news conference and speak with state education staff.
She added that anyone who attends can fill out a postcard to leave at their lawmaker's office.
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By Lane Wendell Fischer for The Daily Yonder.
Broadcast version by Freda Ross for Texas News Service Service for the Public News Service/Daily Yonder Collaboration
For many rural students, the road to any college - whether it be out-of-state, in-state, or regional - may not feel like a road at all. It may feel like a winding, overgrown path filled with advisors, unfamiliar processes, and support systems that were never built with small towns in mind.
In five states across the country, a team of researchers and educators is preparing to hit the road to help build better higher education pathways for rural students. But they're not just plotting routes on a map, they're planning something deeper: how to show up in small communities with respect, listen without assumptions, and stay long enough to have a real conversation.
Andrew Koricich is the executive director of the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges, a research and resource hub focused on highlighting the important role of regional colleges in economic and community development.
Koricich is leading this new approach to build paths to higher education by establishing the Rural Talent Lab. The lab, composed of higher education researchers and educators, will partner with state education agencies to increase student access and enrollment in regional colleges. Here, students can acquire training and skills to find good paying work and support local workforce needs, from welding to nursing to culinary arts.
Over the next four years, his team of researchers and state leaders will hop on a charter bus to visit the rural communities they will be working with. Koricich has one goal in mind for these trips: to listen.
"We've got to stop treating rural communities like pit stops," Koricich said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. "If we're going to do work with rural places - not just on them - that starts with how we show up."
He's also checking for neckties.
"When we go on these community tours, I better not see one person in a suit and tie," Koricich said. "That might feel weird, but it matters. Don't dress like a bum - that's insulting - but don't overdress either. We're just people, sitting around having a conversation."
The goals of the project are to help state education agencies form stronger, longer-lasting partnerships with rural schools and communities, Koricich said.
Once that relationship is established, the Talent Lab will work with their state partners to develop statewide plans built by data-driven research, but most importantly, built by the needs and desires of the rural communities themselves.
What makes this project different isn't just the scope of the work - it's how that work gets done. "This can't be extractive," Koricich said. "We're not coming to take. We're coming to listen, to invest, to stay for breakfast the next morning - and to come back again."
The Way You Show Up Matters
That shift in tone and posture runs through every piece of the project. Instead of arriving with a pre-baked plan, the national team is working to support what rural communities already know: what's needed, what's possible, and what will actually stick.
Each state will take its own approach, guided by local priorities. The national team will offer research and coordination, but not direction. And crucially, they're focused on building trust, not just completing a checklist.
That includes making sure local dollars stay local. The teams will eat at community restaurants, sleep in local hotels, and spend their time in town - not just swoop in for a meeting and head back to the city.
Ty McNamee, an assistant professor of higher education at the University of Mississippi and research fellow for the project, says that mindfulness is essential - especially in places where outside help has too often come with a side of condescension.
"Rural communities aren't broken," McNamee said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. "Rural students aren't an 'at-risk population.' That language makes it sound like something's wrong with them - and there's not. They're brilliant. They're capable. They deserve systems that believe in them."
McNamee, who grew up in rural Wyoming, knows what it means when institutions fail to meet rural students where they are. He hopes this work flips the script by not just improving opportunities, but rebuilding trust in the process and trust in higher education.
"We're not showing up to fix people," he says. "We're showing up to learn from them."
That means making space for local ideas and trusting local relationships. And, as Koricich puts it, "getting comfortable being uncomfortable."
After the Tour Bus Leaves
In many ways, the Rural Talent Lab team is built to be temporary. Their role is to help remove the barriers that have, for so long, prevented long-term partnerships between rural communities, regional colleges, and state education leaders.
The project is set to run for four years. Koricich says the goal is to leave something more lasting behind.
"We hope that by the end, the state teams have built durable relationships with the communities they've visited," he said. "They should be able to go back to those folks later and say, 'We tried 43 things, one of them didn't work - let's try again.'"
That kind of long-term relationship-building takes more than strategy. It takes trust. And that trust is built, Koricich says, not just by the content of the work - but by the method.
Lane Wendell Fischer wrote this article for The Daily Yonder.
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