SAVEBRIGHTFUTURES.org

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<p>Students fight for Bright Futures
Proposed Senate bill would raise Bright Futures for some majors, lower for others
By: Chris Whitmore
Posted: 2/11/08
Imagine a situation where two students are about to graduate high school and attend college. They have the same GPA, received the same scores on the SATs, and participated in the same extracurricular activities. The only difference is one of them is going to be a biology major and the other one will be a creative writing major. For Florida Senator Jeremy Ring (D-Broward County), a choice in majors would be enough to increase the amount of Bright Futures for certain majors and decrease the amount for others.</p>

<p>Titled SB 1320 for the Florida Senate, and proposed as HB 813 in the Florida House of Representatives by Rep. Frank Attkisson (R-Dist. 79), the bill would revise amounts for all Florida Bright Futures scholarship recipients based on their majors.</p>

<p>Any student majoring in math, science, engineering, education or health professions would receive an increased amount of Bright Futures. Florida Academic Scholars, those who receive 100 percent, would then receive 110 percent if they were one of the above-mentioned majors. If a student chooses another major, their Bright Futures would be reduced to 80 percent.</p>

<p>Florida Medallion Scholars, those who receive 75 percent, would receive 85 percent if they were one of the selected majors, but if they are not, a student would only receive 55 percent.</p>

<p>If the bills pass, they would go into effect July 1, 2008.</p>

<p>An effort by Florida students has been created to keep the Bright Futures the way it is. The "Protect Your Bright Futures" Facebook group currently has 17,000 members.</p>

<p>"We are trying to get people to contact their senators and representatives and let them know that they oppose this bill," said Will Anderson, creator of the Protect Your Bright Futures group. "The physical letter makes more of an impact when it reaches the legislature offices. The reason for this is because the letter most be logged and tie up the office time."</p>

<p>SaveBrightFutures.org has a section where students can click on their voting district and download a letter to be sent to their representative. The Web site is looking for campus coordinators, web designers, publicity chairs and letter writers to help with raising awareness of opposition to the bill.</p>

<p>"I think that cutting bright futures for the more liberal arts majors will negatively impact Florida," said Erin Alltop, FSU psychology and philosophy major. "So many students rely on Bright Futures that they might not choose the major they really want to study."</p>

<p>For more information on the bills and the groups, visit savebrightfutures.org or locate the Protect Your Bright Futures group on Facebook. © Copyright 2008 FSView & Florida Flambeau</p>

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<p>Hm, wow. I really hope they don't pass this.
My major will be psychology, and I received the brightfutures 100% for this fall.
Please keep us updated on this.
Do we know what day they will be voting on this?</p>

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<p>whoa this is so stupud, instead of always trying to lower the money for those who got 100% bright futures why dont they make the standards a little higher for those who recieve 75%, to recieve that award all you basically need is a high school diploma.</p>

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<p>Compromise Reached!</p>

<pre><code> Senator Ring has decided to amend SB 1320 and HB 813 in committee so that the incentives to become an engineer, teacher, etc., will remain in place and the differential (the part where everyone else's award would be reduced to 80% or 55%) will be stricken from the bill. SaveBrightFutures.org applauds the Senator for his compromise and foresight. This bill’s intention was to help revitalize the economy of the state by helping shift our economy to one based on high tech jobs. The bill’s revision will help to do that.

SaveBrightFutures.org would have been unable to achieve this compromise without the help of our members. We would also like to thank the Senator for his willingness to help students in Florida.

At this point I would ask that the member of this organization step back and allow our elected officials to handle this issue. SaveBrightFutures.org will be watching this bill, and if it comes to the floor in a manner that is not palatable to the organization, we will step up and fight.

On behalf of this cause I would like to extend our deepest thanks to the members of this group and Senator Ring.

Will Anderson
SaveBrightFutures.org
Founder

Posted February 11, 2008

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<p>Thank GOODNESS!!!</p>