Published January 5, 2010

About 40 worried parents and grandparents came to First Baptist Church in Scottsboro with one concern on their minds—how to save their loved ones’ college tuition funds.

The first Jackson County-Fort Payne Save Alabama PACT meeting was held Monday night. Save Alabama PACT was co-founded by Patti Lambert and Dr. Richard Huckaby as a way to communicate between contract holders in the prepaid affordable college tuition program and state officials.

“We want to get what we paid for—no more, no less,” said Lambert, who spoke at the Monday meeting.

The PACT board recently made a policy decision that would pay only a fixed amount for tuition — leaving parents to pick up the difference — and would adjust funds based on earnings in the PACT trust, rather than increasing tuition costs. A time limit to use the PACT funds would also be changed from 10 years to six.

When the PACT program began operating in Alabama in 1990, its goal was to allow parents and grandparents to pay for their children’s college education in advance. A PACT contract guaranteed the any tuition or fees the student incurred at any in-state college or university would be covered.

Jack Lovelady, of Scottsboro, who purchased a PACT contract in 1994, said he expects his contract to be fully honored.

“Either that, or their word’s no good,” Lovelady said.

Lona Bradford, of Scottsboro, said she bought a contract for her now 13-year-old grandson. Since he’s already 13, she said, she would not have a lot of time to reinvest the funds if she cashed in the contract.

Lambert said there are currently 45,000 PACT contracts in the state.

Gubernatorial candidate Robert Bentley (R-Tuscaloosa) said at the meeting an estimated 10.4 percent of students at the University of Alabama and 10.1 percent of students at Auburn University are PACT students.

Bentley, who was joined at the meeting with state treasurer candidates George Wallace Jr. and Jeremy Sherer, said he believes the board has both moral and legal obligations to uphold the contracts.

Wallace said he’s asking state Attorney General Troy King for an opinion on the legality of the PACT board’s changing contract benefits. Wallace was state treasurer when the PACT program was created 20 years ago.