Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Florida Bright Futures Program continues to headline the agenda for the state legislative session. The state's senate higher education proposal is more than 337 million dollars than what the House budget originally proposed. The proposal would cap tuition at current-year levels, even though tuition fees are likely to increase by as much as fifteen percent next year. As of now, students need a 3.5 high school GPA and a 1270 SAT or 28 ACT score. The proposal would also impose harder requirements for students. Tuition coverage would go from seven years to just four and would stipulate that if students lose eligibility due to a low college GPA they would not be reinstated to the scholarship program for the rest of their college career. The Senate's proposed budget calls for four hundred fifty million dollars for Bright futures. That's thirty-one point four million dollars more than the current year but that hike does cover the growing student enrollment in the program. State Senator Dan Gelber says the changes are unfair to students. Gelber says funding education from state programs like the lottery and local property taxes are not the best sources of study revenue He also says now is not the time to ask for money or make budget cuts