A "Cruel Hoax"

Glendening Tuition Ads Mislead Parents

BEL-AIR—Harford County Executive Eileen Rehrmann has charged Governor Parris Glendening with running self serving television and radio commercials promoting a state higher education investment program which doesn’t even exist, except on paper.

Rehrmann called the ads "a cruel hoax that is misleading parents all over Maryland."

"There is no investment product ready in the marketplace, yet the first priority of the program was to use taxpayer money to put your face on prime time TV and your voice on drive-time radio," Rehrmann said in a letter to the governor. "Your ads make investment promises to parents which cannot be guaranteed…promises which are prohibited by law."

The program in question was created by the 1997 Maryland legislature to encourage savings for college. The Maryland program encourages parents to invest at levels designed to pay estimated tuition costs in 10 to 15 years, but the program is prohibited by law from guaranteeing investment returns or locking in tuition levels. The law specifically requires all program advertising to fully state that investment in the program does not guarantee the investment program will earn enough to pay tuition when the child reaches college age.

"The State cannot guarantee how well investments will perform or how much tuition will increase in 10 or 15 years," Rehrmann said in her letter. "That’s why the legislature required a disclaimer. You failed to include the disclaimer required by law."

Rehrmann pointed out that parents who invest in the program may well have to pay additional tuition, depending upon how fast education costs increase and how well the investment fund performs. If the fund performance is low in the next decade, or higher education costs escalate beyond projections, parents will have to pay the difference.

"The ads falsely state that ‘you can lock in today’s prices’," Rehrmann said. "The new law and program do not affect tuition prices at all."

In the ads, Marylanders are told to "invest today" and they are given a toll-free number to call for more information. But there is no more information.

Callers to 1-888-4-MD-GRAD are told that "no information is ready" and that "the legislature is in session and working on this." In fact, the legislature enacted the program authorization nine months ago.

"Your telemarketers should stop misleading Marylanders about the status of this program." Rehrmann said in her letter.

Rehrmann also asked the governor to explain why he ignored the required procurement process and instead issued an emergency sole source contract for these commercials.

"There was no sole source emergency in this case except the emergency needs of your re-election campaign," Rehrmann charged. "You used taxpayer money for a massive media campaign and advertised a program which doesn’t exist except on paper."

Rehrmann demanded the governor "immediately withdraw the misleading ads from the marketplace and your campaign reimburse the taxpayers for the cost of these ads. You owe taxpayers nothing less."