Bright Futures Scholarship Program
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| Formation | 1997 |
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| Type | Merit based Scholarship |
| Budget | $436 million |
| Website | Official website |
Bright Futures is the name of a scholarship program in the state of Florida. It is funded by the Florida Lottery and was first started in 1997.
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[edit] Program
The Bright Futures program allows Florida high school seniors with "academic merit" to earn a scholarship to any public college/University in the state. This scholarship does not apply if the student chooses to attend college outside the state of Florida. Many private colleges in Florida offer students paid tuition if he or she is a Bright Futures recipient.
A certain SAT score or ACT score is required to earn a Bright Futures scholarship.
A score of 1270 on the SAT and a score of 28 on the ACT to get 100% of a student's tuition paid.
A score of 970 on the SAT and a score of 20 on the ACT to get 75% of a student's tuition paid.
Summer semesters are currently not eligible for bright futures funding, even though most Florida Public Universities require at least six credits to be earned through summer study. This requirement can generally be satisfied by Advanced Placement or CLEP examination.
[edit] Controversy
The Bright Futures Scholarship was first created in 1997, and was meant to emulate the Hope Scholarship. Originally the Program dispersed just above 42,000 scholarships for about $70 million dollars. Over the last decade the cost for the scholarship has balooned substantially. The Scholarship currently costs the lottery’s coffers more than $436.1 million, with about 170,000 students taking advantage of the program.[1][2][3]
The requirements for attaining the scholarship were meant to increase each year but have not, resulting in the current state of the award.
[edit] Reform
Florida Bright Futures is a merit scholarship which was created to increase academic preparedness and performance. Currently Bright Futures does not demand that students receiving the scholarship be Florida's highest caliber students. The requirements as stated above are below the national averages. In addition if a solution is not put into action Bright futures is at risk of being canceled completely.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
^ 1. The GPA used to calculate for Bright Futures eligibility is not the same as what a high school student might have for his or her current GPA. The GPA is calculated by just using the "core classes" which are the classes that are required for graduation. ^ 2. Just like the Gold Seal Vocational Scholars Award, the high school GPA is calculated by "core classes" ^ 3. Criteria for GPA is the same as the criteria for the Florida Medallion Scholars Award.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Bright Futures website
- Bright Futures causes budget woes
- History of the scholarship
- Medallion Scholarship
