ORLANDO, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis is encouraging parents to log into their Florida Prepaid accounts and claim available refunds as there is more than $130 million waiting to be claimed.
DeSantis held a press conference Monday in Orlando and discussed the benefits of the program, which allows families to save money for their child's college tuition by pre-paying throughout their life. This is designed for Florida public schools but can be used for out-of-state schools, trade schools and even transfer the money to siblings if it's not used or refunded.
The governor highlighted that parents can lock in tuition rates when they sign up. There is also an incentive to get a $50 gift card until Oct. 28 if parents sign up.
"This is the largest program of its kind in the country. There's been over 1.2 million families who have taken advantage of it," DeSantis said at the conference.
DeSantis said the average refund from 2020 was about $4,500. Florida's steady tuition rates have led to the millions of refunds available, he said.
The governor also hosted the Lake Mary All-Stars in Tallahassee Friday, which was the Little League team that won the World Series. DeSantis said each player was awarded a prepaid scholarship for two years at any Florida university through the Florida Prepaid program.
"If you have a plan and haven't claimed your refund, log onto your account, check it out because you may have a couple of thousand dollars coming your way," he said.
At the end of the press conference, DeSantis briefly touched on the apparent assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump.
Local authorities said the U.S. Secret Service agents noticed an AK-style rifle sticking through the shrubbery that lined the golf course where Trump was playing. An agent fired, and the gunman dropped the rifle and fled in an SUV. He was later stopped in a neighboring county.
DeSantis echoed what he said via X on Sunday about the incident.
"We also believe that there's a need to make sure that the truth about all of this comes out in a way that's credible. I mean, I look at the federal government, with all due respect to them, you know, those same agencies that are prosecuting Trump in that jurisdiction are now going to be investigating this. I just think that that may not be the best thing for for this country," he said at the conference.
Trump was uninjured and the suspect, who was identified by The Associated Press as 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, was arrested.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.