Currently three major changes are being considered in the next state budget.
Increasing Bright Futures Scholarships, back to up 100% of tuition/fees.
Moving to Block Tuition (pay one rate, but take any amount of credits from 12 to 18)
Allowing OOS students to apply for the Benacquisto Scholarships
The proposed Bright Future changes still have to make it into the final budget, but it’s currently being supported by the Governor, senate and house. It’s very likely to get approved.
This item may or may not get approved. The issue will be how much will the universities be able to charge (12 or more credits). Block tuition awards those taking 14+ credits, a semester, as the more credits you take, the better the deal.
Back in 2005 or so, UF was 2nd in the nation (behind Harvard) in the number of National Merit Scholars. If they open up this scholarship to OOS students, I would expect that to happen again (and also see a huge spike at FSU, UCF, New College and even University of Miami). This is expensive, so it also may not make it into the final budget.
As the mom of a kid on the Benaquisto, I will say it is a beautiful thing! And as an alum, I would love to see the percentage of NMFs coming our way increase.
Can’t find the articles that reported the Bright Futures increase, if approved, would be effective for the 2018-2019 school year, I was disappointed because my son is a junior! And yes, @madredos , bring in those NMFs!!
Also, happily, part of the bill is the ending of the required course " What is the Good Life."
Here is an article from Gainesville Public TV on the bill.
I don’t think this will be approved because in the past few years more and more low income and minority students haven’t qualified for Bright Futures. It is now seen as financial aid for rich kids.
This from the senate. The House (the body with the $$$) hasn’t had a bill introduced.
@twoinanddone Some of the proposed bills in the house, are looking at reducing the requirement for BF (which, of course would raise it’s cost) for that very same reason. That’s likely an item that will be negotiated once the house puts together it’s proposal.
Also, keep in mind that they plan (in the Senate) on doubling the First Generation Matching Grant Program (a need-based program).
UF has been lobbying for dedicated funds to hire additional faculty. Currently the ratio is about 1 to 21 (faculty to students), with UF having a long range goal of reaching 1 to 17. It’s requested funding to get it to 1 to 19, but that would cost $100+ million, so we’ll have to wait and see how much UF gets. Senate President Joe Negron has been open to the idea, which is likely why SB 4 was created. Now it’s a question of how much and will the House match it in it’s Bill.
This is when UF recruited Dr. Juan Gilbert and a few of his faculty. Dr. Gilbert is the Chair of the CIS and Computer Engineering Department.
The UF Board of Trustees has already decided (this year) to switch to a 4-year graduation metric. Likely because it knew the state would be making this proposal (but also because it want’s to increase the number of students that graduate each year from UF and lower the cost of a “4-year” degree). UF has a 88% 6-year graduation rate, and a 66% 4-year graduation rate.
A couple of other schools for comparison:
UCF: 70% and 40%
USF: 68% and 43%
FSU: 79% and 62%
FAMU: 39% and 11%
University of Alabama: 67% and 41%
University of Georgia: 84% and 62%
Schools UF want’s to match…
UC-Berkeley: 92% and 73%
University of Michigan: 90% and 75%
@Gator88NE A lot of people are saying the bill has already gone through, is that true? On https://m.flsenate.gov/Bill/0002/2017 it says it would be effective as of 07/01/17. How likely is it that this will apply to incoming uni freshman of the 2017-2018 school year?
It would be awesome if they had this running by Fall '17 as @Tigershark43 had mentioned. I was planning on calling the FL office of student financial aid on Monday and asking to see if they knew anything about it.
Oh and by the way, I’m SO glad you brought this into the light. A lot of people need to hear about it!
@madisonskipper I have one at UF now, and another graduating HS this spring, so I also hope it is in place by the fall
It’s passed the senate, but the house still has to pass a bill. Then the senate and house have to reconcile the two bills and vote on the final version…then the Governor has to approve it! So far, the house and Governor have been supportive of increasing the BF awards (and making them cover summer terms). Now we have to wait and see…
@Gator88NE - in another thread (addressing what FL prepaid covers) you supplied a very nice and clear breakdown of what is included in the per hour cost of tuition. If the above bill passes and BF increases - what portions of the “tuition” will be covered?
On another note - we have 5th year engineering D at UF (actually, one Spring was co-op so technically 4.5 year, plus some summer hours here and there). This is her final semester. Prepaid ran out this semester - but we were super pleased that she was still awarded BF. I wasn’t sure how long that would last - or for how many hours. She will complete an Eng. Sales minor, but didn’t take any unnecessary hours along the way to my knowledge.
