LANSING – The Michigan Education Trust (MET) Board of Directors announced this week that the state’s prepaid college tuition program will reopen enrollment on Dec. 1, allowing those who buy a contract by the end of the year to qualify for a deduction on their Michigan tax return.
MET contract holders are eligible for a tax deduction on their Michigan tax returns for purchases or contributions made by Dec. 31 each year.
As it does every year, MET closed enrollment on Sept. 30 in order to review and adjust pricing. During that time, it did not sell new contracts.
The Section 529 prepaid tuition program also announced that its contract purchase prices will remain unchanged until May 1, 2020. On that date, prices will increase 3% for limited-benefits contracts and 5% for community college contracts. The cost of full-benefits contracts will stay the same.
That pricing structure will remain in effect through Sept. 30, 2020.
That means, for example, that until May 1, purchasers of Pay-As-You-Go contracts will continue to pay $612 for a credit hour of tuition under a full-benefits contract, which guarantees full payment of tuition and mandatory fees at any Michigan public university; $493 per credit hour under a limited-benefits contract, which covers up to 105 percent of the weighted average tuition of Michigan’s public four-year universities; and $119 per credit hour for a community college contract.
MET also sells contracts through lump-sum and monthly purchase plans that require minimum purchases of a semester’s worth of tuition.
The MET board cited rising fees charged by colleges as the reason for the community college and limited-benefits contract price increases.
MET, which is administered by the Michigan Department of Treasury, is a Section 529 prepaid college tuition plan that locks future tuition at any of the state’s public universities and colleges at today’s rates. MET benefits are used to pay tuition and mandatory fees.
More information about MET is available at SETwithMET.com or 800-MET-4-KID.
