Stanley G. Tate

The Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Program

To provide Florida families with an affordable means to save for their children’s future college education, the Florida Legislature created the Florida Prepaid College Program in 1987, and the first Florida Prepaid College Plans were sold in 1988. Mr. Stanley G. Tate was instrumental in the early development of the Florida Prepaid College Board and served tirelessly as Chairman of the Board during the program’s first 18 years, from 1987 to 2005.

In recognition of Mr. Tate’s service, Governor Jeb Bush signed House Bill 263 into law on June 26, 2006, renaming the program the Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Program. The Prepaid College Board is grateful for Mr. Tate’s commitment and leadership throughout his years of service.

Highlights of Mr. Tate’s leadership include:

• Governor Bob Martinez kicked-off the first enrollment period on September 22, 1988 by purchasing the first two Florida Prepaid College Plan contracts for his twin granddaughters. The program sold 58,651 tuition and dormitory contracts in its first year. That same year, Mr. Tate reflected in the program’s first Annual Report, “We are embarking upon a path that is revolutionizing how Floridians plan for financing their children’s college education.”
• In 1989, two years ahead of schedule, Mr. Tate presented the State of Florida a check for $600,000, repaying a start-up loan made by the Legislature to help launch the program. From this point forward, the program has remained fully self-supporting.
• In 1990, the Florida Legislature created the Stanley Tate Project STARS scholarship program under the Stanley G. Tate Florida Prepaid College Foundation. Project STARS redirects the lives of low-income students who are at risk of dropping out of school by providing them with the opportunity of a college education.
• In 1992, the Florida Prepaid College Plan reached a new program record, with more than 200,000 contracts sold since the program’s inception.
• Two years later, in 1994, investments in the Florida Prepaid College Plan topped $1 billion.
• Complementing the popular tuition plan, a new supplemental prepaid plan covering other mandatory college fees, known as local fees, was introduced in 1998. Nearly 20,000 customers purchased the new plan in the first year.
• In a landmark case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Board in two lawsuits alleging patent infringement and unfair competition.
• Throughout the first 12 years of operation, Mr. Tate was instrumental in making the Prepaid College Plan more flexible by allowing families to use their plan benefits at any qualified out-of-state college or university, by providing payment waivers to military families and victims of hurricanes, by allowing the transfer of dormitory benefits to community college residential facilities, and by allowing the use of plan benefits at public vocational/technical schools in Florida.
• Under Mr. Tate’s leadership, in 2002, the Board created the Florida 529 Savings Plan (formerly the Florida College Investment Plan), providing families with another way to save for college tuition, fees, housing and other college expenses. Prepaid College Plan sales exceeded the half-million mark this year.
• With Mr. Tate’s guidance, the Board helped champion the federal legislation that exempts earnings on qualified withdrawals from the Prepaid College Plan and the 529 Savings Plan from federal income tax.
• Already the largest plan of its kind in the nation, the Florida Prepaid College Plan set another enrollment record in 2005, with one million plans sold. At a ceremony to mark this historic triumph, the Board surprised the Orlando family who purchased the one millionth plan with a Florida Prepaid scholarship. Mr. Tate proudly announced, “Reaching one million plans is an extraordinary accomplishment. Our success is a tribute to Florida families, to Governor Bush and the Florida Legislature, and to all those over the last 17 years who have united to support the program and to make college more affordable. Having now surpassed the one million mark, Florida families have answered loud and clear that providing an affordable college education for their children is a priority for themselves and for the state.”
• At the Florida Cabinet meeting on November 8, 2005, Governor Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet issued a resolution recognizing Mr. Tate’s exemplary record of professional and dedicated service to the families and children of the state of Florida. As stated in the resolution, “Stanley Tate should be credited for his contributions in providing leadership and guidance to numerous education, charitable and community organizations for the benefit of families and children, championing the establishment of the Florida Prepaid College Program, implementing the 529 Savings Plan and through the Prepaid College Foundation redirecting the lives of thousands of Florida’s children by providing them with the opportunity to achieve their true potential in life.”

While Tate served as Chairman of the Board, the Board sold 1,052,080 total contracts, and more than 142,000 children had used their plan benefits attending a college or university. At that time, the Prepaid College Trust Fund’s assets, including accounts receivables, totaled $6.5 billion and had an actuarial reserve of $530 million, representing 8.9 percent of the Fund’s liabilities. In addition, the Foundation Board awarded more than 21,000 tuition and local fee scholarships, of them 15,472 were awarded to Stanley Tate Project STARS students, helping Florida’s children build a better future through a college education.