The General Assembly honored yesterday (Monday, Feb. 25, 2008) the founding executive director of the Virginia College Savings Plan that is helping families financially plan for – and save toward - their children’s college educations.

Diana F. Cantor, an attorney, certified public accountant and New York investment banker, was recognized in the Senate of Virginia and then honored in a brief ceremony in the House of Delegates. A Commending Resolution praising her work at the Virginia College Savings Plan was presented to Cantor by the House, which like the Senate, passed the resolution unanimously. The legislation was sponsored by Del. M. Kirkland Cox and Sen. Walter A. Stosch, both of whom represent Richmond area districts.

Diana F. Cantor receives a Commending Resolution on the floor of the House of Delegates from Delegate M. Kirkland Cox. Cantor's husband, Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, was also in attendance. (Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch, used with permission)

Cantor stepped down in late 2007 after more than 11 years at the helm of the once little-known state agency she helped launch. She is succeeded by Executive Director Mary G. Morris, a former Treasurer of Virginia and Senior Attorney General for Finance and Tax.

The Virginia Prepaid Education Program (VPEP), was the agency’s first 529 plan – one of 14 prepaid plans nationally in which parents, grandparents and others may lock in the costs of tomorrow’s college tuition and mandatory fees. VPEP benefits cover the normal full-time course load at community colleges and public universities in Virginia. Benefits also may be used at out-of-state public institutions and at private colleges in Virginia and beyond.

VPEP contracts are available for newborns through ninth-graders, with the current enrollment period ending Friday, Feb. 29. Prices are based on the child’s age and the number of years of higher education purchased. A one-year community college contract for an infant can be financed for as little as $29 a month. Other Virginia plans are available year-round.

Since 1996, Cantor built Virginia’s 529 college savings program and its four tax-free options into the largest in the country – with its $28 billion in families’ savings representing about one-fourth of the total assets in 529 plans nationally.

The General Assembly resolutions applaud Cantor for her “energy, tenacity and expertise” in expanding the Virginia College Savings Plan to include 1.7 million account owners. The resolutions also commend Cantor’s leadership of the national College Savings Plans Network and her “strategic thinking, political acumen and personal integrity” in securing U.S. congressional and presidential approval of the permanent federal tax-free status of 529 plans.

Cantor’s husband, Virginia Congressman Eric Cantor, accompanied her at the presentations. It was Eric Cantor and now Chief Deputy Attorney General William C. Mims who, as young Virginia delegates, sponsored the 1994 legislation creating what has become the Virginia College Savings Plan.