New Bright Futures Scholarship Plans Hurt Black Students (500 hits)
A bill going through the Florida state Legislature amending Bright Futures scholarship requirements may disproportionately cut opportunities for minority students.
In 1997 Bright Futures cost $70 million, last year it cost $429 million. And in an effort to keep the program solvent, the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee passed Senate Bill 1344 in a Friday vote of 4-1.
The legislation would raise scholarship requirements for SAT scores.
By 2014, the requirements would increase 20 points to 1290 for the Academic Scholar award.
The legislation would add 80 points to the 1050 required for the Medallion Scholar award.
The higher score requirements would save the state an estimated $8 million in 2013 and $100 million by 2018, but 30 percent fewer students would qualify for scholarships, according to the Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government.
The bill would have the largest effect on minority students.
Up to about 49 percent of African American students and 37 percent of Hispanic students who now qualify for Bright Futures would not qualify for the scholarship award in 2014 based on current test scores.
Democratic Sen. Dan Gelber, of Miami Gardens, was the only senator to vote against the bill.
“The economy has created a huge increase of Floridians who want higher education,” Gelber said. “I don’t think they should be stiff aimed.”
Gelber said the new rules were long-term changes for short-term budget problems, and instead of cutting the scholarship the state should consider closing tax loopholes.
“There are plenty of places we can go to find money, and I think the priority has to be education,” Gelber said.
In addition to tougher qualifications, the bill would limit the length of time students can use the scholarship from 7 years to 4 years.
It would also end scholarship restoration if a student loses it for academic reasons.
According to UF spokesman Steve Orlando, the proposed tougher Bright Futures requirements probably wouldn’t affect future UF students due to the fact that most UF students already have the higher SAT scores.
Currently 95 percent of freshman and 77 percent of all undergraduate students at UF have Bright Future scholarships, according to Orlando.
In addition to the scholarship changes, the bill also would allow UF to implement block differential tuition, which would charge full-time students the same tuition rate regardless of how many credits they enroll in .
According to Orlando, a block tuition rate would encourage students to graduate more quickly and increase revenue for the school.
The committee’s bill analysis estimated block tuition would generate more than $2 million in the first year of implementation.
The legislation must pass two more committees before coming to a full Senate vote.
The brother that does the Black In Time blogs...I can't think of his name but I remember he started a topic in this forum and he talked about how we need to build our own Educational Institutions and I agree. I believe that if we do not do this, then we are going to soon see the total downfall of the Black youth right here in America.
We need to put together an alternative education system for our black children that we can take before the Congressional Black Caucus and ask them their input. We need to present this program in front of the U.S. Congress and seek federal funding as soon as possible. These black college students have as much right to receive an adequate education just like white students do and the majority of our children are being cheated out of an education which prepares them to be self sufficient. This has got to stop.
If the U.S. Department of Education does not give us the funds we need to institute our own educational programs, then we need to file a class action lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Department of Education for violating our black childrens constitutional right for an adequate educaton. I know that leaders like Al Shapton and Jesse Jackson have been at this for years, but they need help. You can not tell me that if 34 million black people file a multi-billion dollar class action lawsuit in federal court that we will not get the attention of Congress.
Tuesday, March 23rd 2010 at 5:21PM
Siebra Muhammad
Mom and Clark where you at on this one? Holler back if you here me!
