A Brighter Future
PHONG HUYNH | DEC. 15, 2017 | FEATURES
Photo retrieved from Google Images
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) — Florida students will receive more college financial aid between the fall 2017 and spring 2018 terms due to the expansion of the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship. In the Florida state budget signed by Gov. Rick Scott on June 2, 2017, funding for student financial aid increased toward the Bright Futures program. Senate President Joe Negron implemented the expansion in order to encourage more students to attend Florida colleges, rather than out-of-state institutions. The scholarship has been expanded to cover full tuition and Florida college fees for one year with $300 for textbooks per semester for students who qualify as Florida Academic Scholars, the highest merit-level of the Bright Futures Scholarship. Before the recent changes, each Academic Scholar would receive less than $5,000 per semester.
On June 5, 2017, Florida Rep. Amber Mariano of District 36 announced the legislation to expand the Bright Futures program. Being the youngest Florida House Rep. in history, she has advocated for education reforms and Florida colleges to be more accessible to students.
“Education has time and time again been proven to be the best indicator of future success,” said Rep. Mariano. “So I think anything we can do to help students get there is a great tool.”
These added benefits have made the scholarship more appealing for in-state students interested in saving money and mitigating future financial struggle. Students in out-of-state colleges, from Notre Dame to Princeton, face more burdensome student debt than those who choose to stay in-state. According to U.S. News, average tuition and fees at national universities in the 2017–2018 academic year are $26,010 for public out-of-state colleges compared to the substantially lower average of $10,691 for in-state colleges.
“I have an older brother who goes to Notre Dame and, being a private school, it costs a lot of money. He’s been a little stressed out because of that,” said senior Brady Bunker. “I think the problem for a lot of kids is that these private schools are really good, but because they cost so much they can do more harm than benefit and some people are afraid of that.”
SB 374, also known as the Florida Excellence in Higher Education Act of 2017, would have made the spending increases to the scholarship permanent, but Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the bill on June 14, 2017. Although the bill was rejected, the scholarship’s expansion still remains for the 2017–2018 school year, applying only to Florida Academic Scholars. The added benefits for top scholars will assist students financially in college and partially alleviate the stress of student debt.
“Any financial aid assistance, whether it is financial need or merit-based makes the whole college experience a little bit better,” said May Ibasco, a guidance counselor at Stanton College Preparatory School. “With Bright Futures specifically, it benefits tremendously for students who are attending in-state schools because it is only for in-state institutions.”
“Education has time and time again been proven to be the best indicator of future success. ”
The benefits of the expansion have led parents to urge lawmakers to make the temporary changes to the scholarship permanent next year. State support for student financial aid in any legislation is favored by parents.
“Florida lawmakers should both make permanent and further expand Bright Futures,” said Christopher Janson, parent and Associate Professor and Director of the UNF Center for Urban Education and Policy. “As we continue to transform toward an innovative economy, keeping and developing our talented Florida youth is vital if our state is to thrive.”
Although the expansion is not set in stone, Mariano hopes the permanence of the changes will occur in the future. But it requires more participation and discussion for the topic to reappear and capture the attention of a majority of lawmakers to initiate the legislation.
“I think that this year students need to continue to speak up to legislators like me and voice their opinions to show how crucial it is to our students, parents and our economy to pass the permanent legislation,” said Florida Rep. Amber Mariano.
The Bright Futures Scholarship Program is an in-state scholarship that was started in 1997 by the Florida Legislature to match Georgia’s HOPE Scholarship. It is a lottery-funded, merit-based scholarship that includes three award levels with different requirements for service hours, weighted GPA and test scores.
In the disbursement history of the Bright Futures Scholarship, in 2011, as many as 179,000 Bright Futures scholarships were disbursed to students eligible for the award; that in combination with financial cuts to the program, placed pressure on the state to adjust the requirements. The state adopted higher standards for the scholarship: an ACT score of 29 or a SAT score of 1290. Prior to 2014, the standard was an ACT score of 28 or a SAT score of 1280.
In response to the stricter requirements, the changes were scrutinized for being too harsh for disadvantaged students who came from financially struggling families. The cost of taking ACT and SAT tests, as well as the price of prep material and courses, make low-income families struggle to provide enough for their children to pass the tests. In a 2014 study of the relationship between student SAT scores and family income conducted by the College Board, students who were supported by a family income of under $20,000 received an average score of 1,326 while students from a family income of $200,000 or more received a much higher average of 1,714.
While the expansion supports one group of top tiered students, the other lower-merit level awards, the Florida Medallion Scholars and the Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars awards will stay unchanged at less than $4,000 per semester with no added benefits. For the two lower-tiered levels, a future of student debt remains a seemingly inevitable concern. As a result, the support of the Florida Academic Scholars has raised concern over why the state will not funnel more money into making college financially available for all tiered students of the scholarship.
“Right now, the state is working to keep the 100 percent intact for the top award and hopefully then they will work for the Medallion,” said Ms. Ibasco. “Because those students deserve at least 75 percent of their tuition covered — they have earned the GPA and the hours, so why not?”
Full tuition coverage for all tiered students is a debatable topic for students who worked hard to earn the necessary requirements for the scholarship. Stanton students responded differently about covering the lower tiered students.
“People in the top tiers deserve the benefits,” said Bunker. “People who are not getting the top tiers did not work as hard and they should be inspired to do so.”
However, some Stanton students feel the scholarship’s benefits should be more attainable for everyone. Not only for the students of the highest merit, but for those at lower tiers as well.
“I don’t think the expansion should necessarily cover all tiers but there should be more of an inclusion to make it more accessible to increase the benefits for the lower tiers,” said senior Jon Francisco.
The benefits of the expansion have granted a large, unprecedented opportunity for many Floridian students. Although the expansion will only cover a single school year, the permanence of the changes is an ongoing issue for future lawmakers and parents to discuss. Higher education is still far from accessible to all students of different socioeconomic backgrounds, but the state has made a step toward reaching this goal.