Nearly $164M in refunds for Washington's prepaid tuition

SEATTLE (AP) _ Nearly $164 million in refunds have been processed for Washington's prepaid tuition program since the state agency told people they could ask for their money back in September.

The director of the Guaranteed Education Tuition program says nearly 8,000 refunds have been processed and another 4,000 are still waiting to be processed.

Betty Lochner has said up to 16,000 refund requests are expected, but families with money in the GET program have a year to decide. According to the Washington State Investment Board, the program had a total of $2.5 billion in cash and investments as of Sept. 30.

Meanwhile, the committee that runs the program is looking into starting a new college savings program in Washington. It is meeting in Olympia on Thursday afternoon to discuss those plans and get an update on the current program.