Jacksonville, FL. — Although an amendment to the bill will no longer tie scholarship cuts to the degree a student chooses, the list of programs which the state believes are not likely to lead to jobs, will remain.
The Florida Senate is changing a proposal, which originally cut state Bright Futures Scholarships for students in degree programs the state believed wouldn’t lead to jobs.
For kids graduating high school, college expenses can be stressful.
But the Florida Bright Futures scholarship program has helped more than 725,000 Florida students go to college.
The bill had originally proposed to reduce the amount of money distributed based on the major kids who graduate choose, but that’s changing.
Clay County Education Association President Vicki Kidwell has put three kids through college, and she couldn’t have done it without the Bright Futures Scholarship (which is funded by the Florida Lottery).
“We counted on Bright Futures to be a piece of that,” she said.
Before, a proposed bill would’ve tied money amounts to a list of degrees programs the state deems unlikely to lead to jobs. “You can’t put limits, you know this is Bright Futures. You gotta have diversity, you need to allow kids to take critical thinking,” she said of how she felt about the list.
A new amendment stepped this back, but they’re keeping the list of those programs on the bill anyways.
Here is an excerpt from that bill regarding how the list would be determined: In determining which programs will be included on a 304 list, the Board of Governors and the State Board of Education 305 shall consider national, state, and regional industry demand for 306 certificate holders and graduates of such degree programs. For 307 each certificate and degree program listed, the Board of 308 Governors and the State Board of Education must identify 309 occupations, current job openings, estimates of job growth, and 310 employment wages.
Each approved list must also include 311 appropriate certificate and degree programs offered by eligible 312 independent colleges and universities.
“Now they’re making a list of things they advise you not to take,” she explained.
The bill would also tie the funding available to the legislative budget, but Kidwell says that shouldn’t be the case.
“If I’m counting on that much funding, it needs to be there for families to count on,” she said.
The proponent of the bill, State Senator Dennis Baxley of Ocala, says he wanted to begin a discussion of the cost and value of the degrees across our education system.
Cox Media Group
