ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Marylanders having issues with the 529 college savings plans are traveling to Annapolis to speak with lawmakers. Hoping to get something done so they can access their funds.
"So everybody's locked out and people can't even make decisions cause they're not informed," said Michael Dubsky.
Parents with 529 plans are feeling cheated.
After checking the account balances in the beginning of 2022, then making college decisions off of it, the accounts are now showing much less.
"She had 94,000 in the account available. They now tell us that her FAFSA value for her is less than 40,000," said Heather Boley.
Parents like Boley and Dubsky are now having to come up with a way to pay the tuition bills they thought were covered.
"So we had to come up with the balance and that's where we had to borrow from and now we have another $17,000 bill with no way to really pay it," said Boley.
Boley said her daughter went out of state because of the money in the account, now half of it is gone.
"I'm very worried, I have a lot of sleepless nights trying to figure out how we're going to resolve this," said Boley.
Today, a group of parents took the issue to the House Appropriations Committee hoping Maryland lawmakers step in since 529 hasn't been able to resolve the issue.
"It's totally ridiculous that they've had such poor response when people have kids in college, you're in a panic, and these are responsible parents. These aren't dead beats, these are the people that planned ahead," said Dubsky.
Today was only the first step for lawmakers to look into the issue.
These parents want what they feel was promised to them, now there's no guarantee that money is coming their way.
