<p>Amen, scooter!</p>
<p>A great time to add another med school, I should think. ;)</p>
<p>Investor scooter, YES 95% of UF freshman and 90% of FSU freshman have one of the Bright Futures awards. FSU’s CARE program is part of the reason they are a bit lower. FSU also has more audition entrance fine arts programs. And rumor has is that of the 5-10% who don’t have BF, many are eligible but never did the online application. For FSU anyway, you need a minimum of 500 on SAT CR and M just to apply, so you have to have a higher SAT than the Bright Futures requires for the 75% award. So pretty much, except for athletes, CARE, and those who audition for music and dance and other fine arts areas, you are eligible for Bright Futures just by having the minimum requirements to apply for FSU score-wise. And a weighted GPA of 3.0 is not that hard either.</p>
<p>That is why tuition stays low. Any rise in tuition means the state still has to meat the rise via Bright Futures. The only hope is either tuition differentials, tuition increases while BF stays the same; or they need to make financial aid a part of the equation. Otherwise, there is no cash infusion. The harder the state U is to get in, the more likely nearly all of its tuition dollars come from BF. The only saving grace is that some kids loose their awards when they can’t keep up their GPA. It is a vicious cycle.</p>
<p>Here’s another article from the St. Pete Times about BF. BTW, about 71% of all UF Florida resident undergraduate students receive BF’s. </p>
<p>[Because</a> of its success, future of Bright Futures may be dimmed - St. Petersburg Times](<a href=“http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/article998280.ece]Because”>http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/college/article998280.ece)</p>
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<p>We all knew it was a matter of time.</p>
<p>Discussing Bright Futures sure can get folks’ hackles up:</p>
<p>[Bright</a> Future college grants favor wealthy](<a href=“http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/may/08/college-grants-favor-wealthy/news-metro/]Bright”>http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/may/08/college-grants-favor-wealthy/news-metro/)</p>
<p>The Bright Futures program allows Florida high school seniors with “academic merit” to earn a scholarship to any public college/University in the state. Poor people have Pell Grants for which wealthy students do not qualify.</p>
<p>BF’s was modeled after Georgias HOPE scholarship program.
The HOPE program has two stated goals:
- To offer academically superior students who would not otherwise be able to afford college the opportunity to receive higher education and
- To offer an incentive to academically-superior students who can afford to attend college to remain in the state of Georgia, countering the “brain drain” phenomenon Georgia was experiencing prior to the program, when many talented students were attending universities in other states. </p>
<p>Critics have claimed that the HOPE scholarship disproportionately benefits students from affluent school districts because they tend to do better academically. The HOPE scholarship is funded primarily through income from lottery ticket sales, and people who buy lottery tickets tend to be from lower economic classes. For these reasons, critics claim that the scholarship represents a type of regressive tax.</p>
<p>It is pretty clear that Florida is pursuing goal #2 countering Floridas Brain Drain.
If Florida is to change its economy to something other than service oriented towards the tourism industry this line of reasoning must continue.</p>
<p>Yes, the standards must be raised. Below are some recommendations from actual students: LINK: [Bright</a> Futures Scholarship Program - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Futures]Bright”>Bright Futures Scholarship Program - Wikipedia)
Acquisition of BF (In High School for the incoming class of 2013):
Raise GPA: 75% from 3.0 to 3.25, 100% remains as is; Raise SAT Scores 75% from 970 to 1020 (to the national average), 100% remains as is; Raise ACT Scores 75% from 20 to 22, 100% remains as is
Retention of BF (In College):
Raise GPA 75% from 2.75 to 3.0, 100% 3.25
These recommendations will reduce the number of recipients, alleviating pressure on the tight budget and crowded university system. 2.7 million dollars could be saved by the sate in the first year just by increasing the SAT requirement from 1270 to 1290.
It is proposed that an undetermined percentage of the savings be allocated to funding minority and low Social Economic Status students as they will be disproportionately affected by these changes.</p>
<p>Just got off the phone with Florida Office of Financial Assistance and they said for the fall term they are only paying a flat 126.00 per credit hour and no extra money for other expenses. Sheesh…they work so hard and then the rug gets pulled out. Not quite fair!</p>
<p>Still, an excellent value and one which any Florida parent should be happy to get. When you compare the out of pocket for a Florida state school with virtually any other state school and their in-state resident costs, we have it good.</p>
<p>Students in Florida should be thankful for what they are getting now in the way of merit and/or need-based state financial aid and comparatively low tuition fees. Nobody likes paying or borrowing more, but things could be worse. More students simply can’t afford college even while employed at the same time. Unless Florida’s economy strengthens soon, and state revenues increase, more drastic changes made be made to Florida programs like Bright Futures and tuition charges. Too, the state colleges are bursting at the seams enrollment wise. Miami-Dade College recently announced it is full and can’t take any more sudents.</p>
<p>California is in dire shape financially now and may become thee first state to eliminate financial aid to California college students: [California</a> could be the first state to cut student aid while hiking fees - Los Angeles Times](<a href=“http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-calgrants29-2009may29,0,867070.story]California”>State could be the first to cut student aid while hiking fees)</p>