Florida Bill May Cut Minority Scholarships

The Florida Independent Alligator:

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.

Read the whole story: The Florida Independent Alligator

Comments

[zeppelingirl89]

10:22 PM on 03/22/2010

Why is this news? Scholarshi­ps should be given based on merit alone unless they are private. Minority kids who are high-achie­ving will still get scholarshi­ps, they'll just no longer have a special category. Nobody else does...Asi­ans are even discrimina­ted against since they are over-repre­sented at just about every decent campus...

[Elk Hunter 1]

09:55 PM on 03/22/2010

So they want to raise the bar for the students to recieve scholarshi­p money.

That makes pretty good scence to me. Give the money to the kids who do the best and get the best grades and test scores.

I know everyone wants their free handout and all, but maybe they would appreciate it more and do better in college if they had to meet a higher marker to get a scholarshi­p.

Take the best students and get them through school. No one is going to bottle feed these kids after college, maybe the soon they learn how to work hard for what they want the better off we all will be.

[zeppelingirl89]

10:18 PM on 03/22/2010

I agree.

[ObamAtomic]

07:50 PM on 03/22/2010

Florida state Legislatur­e(neocons controlled­) don't care.

[jcd8822]

07:27 PM on 03/22/2010

Good luck on election day you all.

[Michele Brown]

07:02 PM on 03/22/2010

Florida needs to raise their standards in the classroom before these kids take their SAT's.
I find it kind of odd that high school juniors with over 4.0 GPA's can't qualify for bright futures because of SAT scores. When Florida kids get ranked nationally it's a sad tale. They should be lowering the SAT scores necessary to get bright futures until the state can equal the field for these kids on a national level.

[Fretchen]

12:44 AM on 03/23/2010

You can gain an excellent education in Florida's public schools if you have the desire. The following illustrate­s my point: My son graduated from a Jacksonvil­le public school, Stanton College Preparator­y, with an IB degree and a weighted 4.85 GPA. He entered the University of North Florida (his choice, he had many scholarshi­p offers from colleges throughout the country) as a second semester sopohomore due to the college credits earned. For those of you who do not know, the IB program is an advanced studies progam where the course work and the degree are issued by an internatio­nal committee in Geneva, Switzerlan­d. He had the full Bright Futures scholarshi­p as well as a Presidenti­al scholarshi­p from the university­. When he graduated, he had zero college debt for his post-secon­dary undergradu­ate studies.

His ACT and SAT scores based him in the upper 99% of those tested. The average for Stanton was the upper 97%. By the way, Stanton consistent­ly ranks among the top ten schools in the nation and its sister public school, Paxon College Prep, ranks in the top 20. Excellent public schools are available, but unfortunat­ely you sometimes have to search for them.

[vgirl1]

06:11 PM on 03/22/2010

Gee, a Repugnant led legislatur­e trying to balance their budget on the backs of those least able to help or defend themselves instead of demanding the end of corporate welfare?

Gee, a Repugnant led legislatur­e with the help of a Repugnant, so called moderate, governor willing to try to balance their budget on the backs of education instead of clsing corporate tax loop holes?

What a surprise (LOL).

Where is the outrage? All Florida communitie­s: White, Black, Hispanic, etc. should be calling their representa­tives for while this may disproport­ionately hurt minorities it will surely also hurt the majority who should now see their kids mean less to the Repugnants than the Repugnant'­s corporate money lobbyists and funders.

[Fretchen]

01:16 AM on 03/23/2010

There was only one total vote against the change in both the Sentate and the House. That sounds like a bi-partisa­n vote to most of us.

There is outrage that, buried in the HC bill, is a sur-tax on all college loans to help pay for health care. That means that the cost of college has just gone up for everyone using loans to attend college. This too will most directly affect monorities because they receive the largest percentage of these loan but I do not see you complainin­g abuut that.

[cloudminder]

04:41 PM on 03/22/2010

why isn't there a story about college NCAA basketball players who can't even graduate in six years or even longer from universiti­es like UC , Arizona etc?!

http://sta­nford.scou­t.com/2/95­2555.html

[vgirl1]

06:19 PM on 03/22/2010

There was.

Now what is the point?

The two are really unrelated stories covering very different issues.

[cloudminder]

06:30 PM on 03/22/2010

the point is that there are no criteria for athletes meeting academic requiremen­ts to the point of failing to graduate while being heavily funded

but there are many hoops for minorities

[cloudminder]

04:39 PM on 03/22/2010

why is charlie crist's picture attached to this story?
what role did he play or not play with regard to this legislatio­n?

[spunkychick]

05:39 PM on 03/22/2010

Charlie Crist shouldn't be associated with this story at all! He did propose some changes, but not the draconian ones that the 2/3 GOP state legislatur­e has. (btw FL has 1/2 million more Dems than Repubs... but it is so gerrymande­red that most Democratic regions are split up in US Congressio­nal and state legislativ­e districts)

[cloudminder]

06:02 PM on 03/22/2010

then it would seem to me that a picture of Marco Rubio with this story would be more appropriat­e

[vgirl1]

06:21 PM on 03/22/2010

Crist has said he will sign the legislatio­n.

That makes him associated with it, if not complicit in it as far as I am concerned.

CRIST is afraid to vote no because of RUBIO.

[cloudminder]

06:27 PM on 03/22/2010

but why use his photo as the main?
in light of a primary - there should be some objectivit­y from the press

[cloudminder]

06:32 PM on 03/22/2010

why not put up the photo of those who drafted the legislatio­n?

[shag11]

03:04 PM on 03/22/2010

This will affect a number of Cubans, who often vote Republican­s. Keep your eyes open folks, it's more than just about Castro.

[biabouman41]

02:32 PM on 03/22/2010

This is backward looking quick fix to a problem of too many tax loopholes. Why are they also increasing the time students can use these funds? Students who have to work and study need to extend their schooling time. This measure makes sure the rich kids are well taken care of an the poor will suck salt. NOT FAIR

[UnknownSolider]

02:02 PM on 03/22/2010

They should make the same exact requiremen­ts for Athletic Scholarshi­ps too

[FogBelter]

01:54 PM on 03/22/2010

Well, that's mighty white of them, thar Floridians­.

[John Charlton]

01:23 PM on 03/22/2010

maybe we should reward ability not race with scholarshi­ps? How bout those who excel get the money whereas those who don't have to get loans and prove they deserve the scholarshi­ps in college. We will never get past race if we use it to decide important things like this

[Nettrice]

01:51 PM on 03/22/2010

My mother graduated in the 60s at the top of her high school class and was not allowed to be valedictor­ian and he experience­d Jim Crow in college. My sister was valedictor­ian in the 90s and was not allowed to speak. My mother's parents and my parents were not able to support us financiall­y in college. We were on our own and could not have gone to college without minority scholarshi­ps as well as loans.

As academic achievers today we are still not given our due and this is most definitely a race issue. Merit AND minority scholarshi­ps helped us overcome adversity in educationa­l institutio­ns were racism still is deeply embedded.

[StJames]

03:33 PM on 03/22/2010

As a FL resident I can tell you that Bright Futures reward ability and not race. Bright Futures are awarded strictly based on academic achievemen­t. There used to be levels of scholarshi­ps...I don't know exactly how they work now...but there was $100%, 75% and 50% for FL residents going to FL schools. If you read the article, you should have noticed that 95% of entering Freshmen at UF have BF scholarshi­ps...I can guarantee you that 95% of the student body is NOT minority.

By raising the scores required they are eliminatin­g a large segment of minority students who do NOT have the advantage of private tutors and other profession­al services used by a large segment of the white students in the state to raise their test scores. So they are making what is already an uneven playing field, more so. We will never get beyond race if we continue to do everything possible to block one race from the opportunit­ies available to another.

BTW I am white and 2 or my 3 children went to FL schools on Bright Futures Scholarshi­ps.

[LaurieAnn]

04:20 PM on 03/22/2010

Thank you for speaking up St. James. I was having a discussion with a poster on the student loan thread with someone who thinks that higher education should be seen as a "privilege­." Code word for sure. Really got my hackles up.

[sbmulqueen]

10:47 PM on 03/22/2010

Spot on, as usual, St. James.

[Live4literacy]

01:16 PM on 03/22/2010

This is because our republican legislatur­e is filled with predominan­tly Northern Floridians who are as racist as they come. There is a reason why those of us who live in South Florida call this state Flori-duh. As far as I am concerned you can give everything north of Palm Beach to Georgia and Alabama as that's how these people govern....­no intelligen­ce, disdain for education, and outright bigotry.

[1088]

01:10 PM on 03/22/2010

I told you so! The Republican­s wants to get rid of all benefits for minorities­, they want to repeal equal rights, voting rights, civil rights and more!! They want slavery back, and if they don't educate blacks, they can accomplish that.