Amid spiraling costs, Florida's "Bright Futures" scholarships will be under the gun again at the 2011 Legislature -- riddled by funding raids and what some call lax eligibility rules.
The program, which once granted tuition-free rides to Florida's top high-school graduates, is moving deeper into a financial hole. Its founder says some of that hole has been dug by legislators who, he charges, have shifted away lottery funds earmarked for education.
Launched in 1997 with a price tag of $70 million, Bright Futures' budget has soared to $437 million, and climbing.
Part of the rise is due to higher tuition rates. In an effort to contain costs, the Legislature backed off the full-tuition guarantee two years ago. The scholarships now cover only a percentage of the tuition bill.
A bigger problem, some critics say, is Bright Futures' low bar for eligibility.
Currently, 88 percent of all Florida students qualify for the scholarships, which originally were established to reward the state's top young scholars.
Bright Futures are awarded on two tracks. Today, students with A averages and qualifying SAT scores receive $3,750 while B-average students get $2,820. Those dollar amounts represent 74 percent and 57 percent of tuition costs, respectively.
With grade inflation rampant at high schools, Bright Futures' aggregate payouts, even at reduced amounts, have more than sextupled in 14 years.
Recipients currently only need a 970 SAT score, which is some 47 points below the national average. As a result, a whopping 181,000 students qualify for the grants.
Even students see the situation as unsustainable.
"The current system gives money to students scoring a 970 on the SAT, which is below the national average of 1017," the Independent Daily Alligator editorialized this month.
"We arent supposed to be rewarding students who perform in the realm of mediocrity and inflate their GPAs," the UF student newspaper stated.
National studies have shown that state scholarships based on a specific grade-point benchmark can have the effect of raising the average GPAs in high schools toward that designated level.
Other research has found that marginal recipients of such scholarships end up in remedial classes at college -- adding to the costs of higher education. In an attempt to stanch that phenomenon in Florida, Bright Futures will not pay for remedial courses.
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS EYE MORE TUITION HIKES
Eyeing likely state budget cuts, college presidents are focused on raising new revenue to protect their bottom lines.
University of Florida president Bernie Machen is proposing a massive 30 percent tuition hike. That's on the heels of a 15 percent annual increase -- the maximum allowed by state law.
If Machen were to receive special approval for a larger bump, it's likely that other campuses would seek similar dispensations.
Tuition increases raise funds for the universities, but they could also well trigger proportionately higher outlays and costs for Bright Futures, digging an even deeper fiscal hole for the scholarship program.
The prospect of higher costs presents a double-whammy because the state used $100 million in federal stimulus funds to prop up Bright Futures this past year.
Now that those one-time funds are gone, legislators are proposing several remedies, including limiting scholarships to only those families with financial need, and requiring students to repay the money if they don't stay in Florida after graduation.
But switching to a need-based system undermines the program's original merit-based intent. And mandating that students stay in the state would surely boost the program's administrative overhead, and possibly court legal complications.
Lawmakers also could continue to chip away at the percentage of the tuition bill that the state will cover. Yet continuing on that track simply devalues the program, and threatens to trigger another "brain drain" of bright students to other states.
LEGISLATIVE MANEUVERS AND LOTTERY FUNDS
Ken Pruitt, the former state senator who conceived and instituted Bright Futures, said lawmakers have created the budget problem through "accounting maneuvers," including the displacement of lottery funds earmarked for education.
Even as overall program outlays have risen, reduced individual Bright Futures awards have "almost become a stipend," he said. The Port St. Lucie Republican warned that further cuts will bring "a tipping point," where families decide that other states offer a better deal for college education.
"We ought to be celebrating that $437 million [for Bright Futures] because it benefits Florida educationally and economically. It doesn't benefit to see [students] go to another state," Pruitt said.
Reformers say the Legislature's only real way to contain costs and retain the value of Bright Futures is to ensure its scholastic integrity.
"We talk about areas to save money. This is one place we're ripe for it in the next few years," said Steve Oelrich, R-Gainesville, chairman of the Senate's Higher Education Committee.
So far, however, legislators have only suggested tinkering with the lower tier of recipients. One proposal would raise that requirement by 10 SAT points annually.
That's too little, too late, reformers say.
"Why not bump it up to the 75th percentile of SAT scores now? To receive a merit-based scholarship, its not unreasonable to expect a student to perform better than three-fourths of his or her peers," the Daily Alligator argues.
"The fact that 98 percent of UF students qualify for the award speaks to our need to restrict it. Raising the bar will not only save the program money; it will drive students to perform better in school and on tests."
Pruitt says that while the state's designated SAT scores were intended to keep pace with national averages, any adjustments must be made carefully.
"Any time you raise the average, a certain demographic group is kept out," he said.
Nevertheless, Gov. Rick Scott's budget seeks to aggressively jump-start reform on eligibility.
He wants to require a 1280 SAT score to qualify for the higher Bright Futures scholarship in 2012. Second-tier students would have to score 1020 -- three points above the current U.S. average.
The governor also would lay the groundwork for screening scholarship recipients according to income by requiring financial disclosures from families, Pruitt said. "That opens the door to a needs-based system," the senator warned.
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Reach Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
