Florida lawmakers have backed down from much of their plan to pursue a beloved higher education curriculum after a significant setback for students and parents.
More than 110,000 college students received the earnings-based Bright Futures scholarship in 2020, but it could potentially be significantly reduced after Republican Senate Dennis Baxley submitted Senate Bill 86. paid work can receive the grant, which pays between 75 and 100 percent of in-state tuition at public and private universities.
If passed, SB would leave 86 students who wanted to study history, art or English without money for a scholarship that has been part of the higher education system in Florida since the 1990s. Students felt that they would be on the verge of choosing between tuition fees and their academic interests.
“It was devastating,” high school student Alexandro Valdez, 16, said of the proposal. ” A politician said my dreams were not worth it. ‘
The earnings-based scholarship uses money from the state lottery and is awarded to students who perform best based on a combination of high school credits, standardized test scores, volunteer hours and GPA thresholds. Since 1997, the state has taught $ 6.8 billion to more than 2.8 million students. But the proposed cuts did not stop at the restrictions on majors – SB 86 would also help students who have already gone to high school or advanced courses, and the amount allocated to those taking certain scholarships.
Valdez was not alone in his anger. Students, parents, art groups and others said SB 86 would destroy a program that is available in some cases, outside of the educational opportunities available to the best students in the state. Students currently participating in the program said they were blinded, as well as high school students who had planned their entire secondary education around the scholarship.
“If our education is not tampered with, our thoughts and input must be considered,” Valdez said.
He and a group of teenagers from Orlando and Tallahassee jumped into action. They created a website, “Save Bright Futures”, which provided information on what happened and how they could help. With the passing of the bill to make it accessible to a wider audience, they outlined the consequences and encouraged fellow Floridians to sign petitions, call representatives and go to the Senate hearings and testify.
Kaylee Duong, 18, who helped organize the Save Bright Futures campaign, said the proposed changes put her in a difficult position. Duong, a senior, is currently trying to decide where he is going to go to university. Both of her older brothers were the recipients of the scholarship, and when she went through high school and high school, her family made sure that she met all the requirements so that she could receive it as well. SB 86 made Duong more serious about considering overseas colleges, where she thought her financial aid could be more stable.
“It is safe to say that it would be a very easy choice if it did not happen, and I would probably attend the state,” she said. Not lost on Duong, part of Bright Futures’ point is to prevent brain drain and keep the state’s smartest students at home.
One of Duong’s co-organizers, Lorenzo Urayan, who wants to go to art school, was worried that he would not be able to afford the university unless he studied something by the legislators which, according to the proposed changes, is more “practical”.
“I think both STEM and the humanities are important,” Urayan, 17, said. “It’s not fair that politicians decide what you should study.”
Duong and Urayan were not alone in their indignation. In his letter to fellow state senators in March announcing the withdrawal of some of the most controversial changes, Baxley wrote “We have woken up a giant.”
An imperfect good
While Baxley withdrew his reviews, it was a major victory for students fighting to save the scholarship, but lawyers and other lawmakers said the fight continues.
“It’s still not a good account,” said Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat, said when she was studying at university.
Some lawmakers in the House are now proposing to reduce the textbook allowance in the stock market, which would save $ 37 million.
“Big changes are off the table for now,” Eskamani said, “but students who need the textbook allowance deserve the admission.”
The program itself is also not perfect. Black students make up more than 21 percent of the K-12 student population in Florida, but only 6 percent of Bright Futures recipients are black. And although white students disadvantage 36 percent of the total students, it amounts to more than half of the scholarship recipients since the start of the program.
Scholars have found that state-sponsored earning assistance can often give money to already privileged students, and are not aimed at improving access for disadvantaged students, said Justin Ortagus, director of the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Florida’s College Education, said.
Ortagus, who himself received a scholarship, said that does not mean that earnings aids are not successful with the goal.
“We need to be honest about what we prioritize, and earnings assistance is not the mechanism to reduce gaps in equities,” he said. A program like Bright Futures ‘has a great meaning for the state’ because it aims to keep the state’s best and brightest at home so that they can contribute to the local economy and increase the prestige of local institutions, Ortagus said.
Although the program is not explicitly aimed at helping low-income students, it does ultimately help a lot, including Ortagus, who grew up with a low-income background and went to the school where he now teaches with 100 percent of his tuition. .
SB 86, he suspects, would have only exacerbated the inequality already endemic to many merit assistance programs.
The students who helped save the scholarship said they knew it was not perfect, and that the experience the state legislature had successfully pursued to save Bright Futures prompted them to continue fighting for more fair higher education in Florida.
“Bright futures have always had disproportionately fewer black and brown recipients because of the SAT requirement,” said Thomas Truong, a 16-year-old organizer at Save Bright Futures. “What it would have done was to limit it even less to minorities.”
“We want education to be accessible to all,” he said. Now he feels like he can be a voice to make it happen.