Q&A of the Day – Are the proposed changes to Bright Futures, bright ideas? Part 2
Bottom Line: With the near tripling of eligible students under Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarship program over the past decade, has come a series of financial challenges for the future funding of the program. With the growth in expenditures outstripping the growth of revenue by the Florida Lottery, a decision has to be made by the legislature on how to account for the shortfall. There are only two options which wouldn’t require a complete overhaul of the program. Divert additional lottery funding away from K-12 school education to support the Bright Futures Scholarships or change eligibility requirements and/or payouts. The proposed changes by the Republicans in this year’s session are focused on the later. So, what are they...?
The proposed legislation would task the Board of Governors to create a report identifying which fields of study at post-secondary institutions are most likely to lead to jobs upon graduation. Once identified, future scholarship awards would be issued on a sliding scale based upon a student’s chosen path of education relative to the future job prospects of that field of study. As you might imagine, many liberal arts educators are especially concerned, given the known challenges for future employment with many degree paths in that field.
- Here’s what this comes down to as to what you feel is the best path forward. The choices are...
- Divert lottery funding from K-12 education
- Raise eligibility requirements across the board and/or
- Lower payouts for Bright Futures recipients
- Or something creative like what’s been proposed incentivizing fields of study
The truth is no matter what changes are going to be made someone or some group is going to take exception to the changes. It’s not possible to make everyone happy. It’s up to you to decide the best path forward. Interestingly Governor DeSantis doesn’t support the current Republican proposal. He had this to say: I think Bright Futures is something that Florida families have relied upon. It’s something that I support. I fully funded it in my budget, and we hope the Legislature follows suit on that as well. What exactly does that mean? If there’s a finite amount of lottery revenue to distribute and the costs of Bright Futures increases are outstripping the growth of lottery revenue and it’s fully funded in Governor DeSantis’s budget... I’m left with the conclusion that the governor’s preference is to divert the extra money from K-12 education. The overall impact at the individual school district level would be relatively small. Of course, the argument could be made that maximizing resources at the K-12 level would have the potential to benefit a greater number of students, but again. There’s always going to be a tradeoff. I’ve reported, you decide.