The Michigan Education Trust enrollment period opened Wednesday and will run through June 15.

The program, which has sold about 74,000 contracts since its creation in 1988, allows individuals to buy contracts for college at the current rate of tuition while the student is still in elementary, middle or high school.

When the student is ready to attend college, he or she can cash in the contract and pay for school.

The contracts, which can be bought for as little as a semester or for the whole four years, increased 3.8 percent since the last enrollment period.

"The increase is really reflective of the tuition increases that are out there," Michigan Department of Treasury spokesman Terry Stanton said. "The MET board thought it was a reasonable price."

Parents could purchase a contract for two semesters for a newborn baby for a little more than $7,000, Stanton said.