Bright Futures Changes At Hand

By ADAM EMERSON The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 12, 2007

From the first lottery dollar spent on college tuition, lawmakers and university presidents have done everything politically possible to tweak the state's popular Bright Futures scholarships.

Every time, they failed.

But a campaign to change how Florida bankrolls higher education is building momentum. While the scholarship retains the value it had when lawmakers created it a decade ago, it won't cover an upcoming tuition increase enacted recently at some universities.

And when the state's university oversight board voted last month to raise tuition in the spring, it did so without seeing to it that Bright Futures would cover the extra cost.

The moves compound efforts under way by education leaders and some lawmakers who would make the scholarship harder to get and deliver the money to students who need it.

One expert who reviewed the university system this year said that changing nothing may bankrupt higher education in Florida.

About 42 percent of the state's 228,000 undergraduates collect the scholarship, which, depending on high school grades and test scores, covers 75 percent or 100 percent of college tuition and fees.

Critics say a disproportionate number of those students come from families that can afford the $3,300 annual cost.

Former Florida State University President Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte, who sits on a commission charged with reforming Florida's budget system, recently called Bright Futures "an entitlement program for the very wealthy."

When the Legislature created the scholarship in 1997, then-university system Chancellor Charles Reed called it "one of the dumbest public policies."

Speaking by phone from his California office last week, Reed said "it might even be dumber.

"It's just bad public policy to give wealthy people government funds," said Reed, who now runs the California State University system. The Legislature is "going to starve the universities into mediocrity."

Some fear that has already happened. Yet powerful lawmakers have repelled any change to a program they say has opened college doors to students and kept the state's best and brightest in Florida.

State Senate President Ken Pruitt, one of the earliest proponents of Bright Futures, for years has fought off attempts to change how the scholarship is delivered.

In 2003, Pruitt crisscrossed the state in a yellow bus, visiting colleges and universities to rally support for the scholarship at a time his colleagues were trying to make it harder to get.

"Bright Futures is a trust we've built with our students and parents and shouldn't be breached," Pruitt said then.

Pruitt could not be reached for comment last week; attempts to speak with him coincided with news of the death of his son, Kenneth Pruitt Jr., in Tallahassee.

Ballooning Costs

Because of lawmakers such as Pruitt, the scholarship has been bulletproof. The Florida Legislature put $75 million into the program out of lottery ticket sales 10 years ago. It was enough to fund about 43,000 scholarships.

Within a year, the cost jumped to $120 million, prompting an outcry among university leaders, who predicted the program would become too expensive. After Adam Herbert succeeded Reed as university system chancellor, he called Bright Futures a "ticking time bomb."

The program cost $350 million last year.

A long-held complaint is that it's too easy to get the scholarship. For Bright Futures to cover 75 percent of tuition and fees, a student only has to score a 3.0 grade-point average on a 4-point scale and earn an SAT score of 970 or ACT score of 20.

The national SAT average is 1021. The national ACT average is 21.1.

Current university system Chancellor Mark Rosenberg recently spoke with members of the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission, a committee charged with reforming the state's budget process. Rosenberg suggested "modifying" Bright Futures, perhaps by making it harder to get.

Commission members were bewildered to learn of the low minimum requirements to get the scholarship, but none has proposed changes.

The first of many unsuccessful attempts to raise requirements came in 1998, when lawmakers suggested changing the minimum SAT score for the 75 percent scholarship from 970 to 1100.

Some feel the political challenge might be less daunting today, considering the criticism that Bright Futures ends up in the hands of many students who don't need it.

State Sen. Les Miller Jr., a Tampa Democrat, has long sought to transfer some of that money to programs that help needy students. He has failed in the past. Today, Miller sits on the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission.

"The bulletproof vest is going to have to be removed," Miller said in an interview last week.

Frequently, students smart enough to qualify for Bright Futures also qualify for other scholarships that cancel out the need for Bright Futures.

University of South Florida senior Momodu Ali, 20, receives 100 percent tuition reimbursement from Bright Futures, but he also gets about $17,000 a year in USF-sponsored scholarships.

The money from Bright Futures represents income to Ali, who's studying to be a dentist. "I really don't have to worry about working now," said Ali, who said he always considered attending USF, regardless of Bright Futures. "I can concentrate on graduate school."

Although Ali acknowledges Bright Futures is less critical for him, he says that with the cost of living and books it allows many of his friends to attend the university who couldn't otherwise afford it.

That's why many want to protect it. When lawmakers considered special tuition increases for USF, FSU and the University of Florida, they were concerned about raising costs higher than what Bright Futures would cover.

Uncertain Future

In the end, however, university presidents convinced the Legislature that Florida's tuition was too low. They needed more money to hire professors to close the state's student-faculty ratio, which is the nation's largest.

Gov. Charlie Crist in June reluctantly agreed to sign the measure into law. It allows the three schools to raise tuition by up to 40 percent over several years. Bright Futures won't cover the increase.

The increase doesn't take effect until fall 2008, however. Public tuition in Florida still remains among the nation's lowest. University leaders say that lawmakers are reluctant to raise tuition higher because doing so will require a deeper investment in Bright Futures.

Frustrated by what they saw as a lack of state support, the Board of Governors last month voted to raise tuition by up to 5 percent for next spring, defying lawmakers who claim only they have the authority.

They also joined a group of prominent Floridians who are suing the Legislature to settle once and for all who has the power to set tuition for the state's undergraduates.

The board raised tuition for next spring irrespective of whether Bright Futures would cover the increase. Officials from the state Education Department last week said they don't know whether the scholarship would cover the cost.

After the board's move, Pruitt sent an immediate, threatening response:

"The Constitution clearly does not give the Board of Governors the authority to set tuition," he said then. "It's the duty of the Legislature. Mark my word: we are going to fight to make sure the American Dream of higher education is affordable for all students.

"My message to the Board of Governors?" Pruitt said. "We'll see you in court."

Reporter Adam Emerson can be reached at (813) 259-8285 or aemerson@tampatrib.com.