The future of Florida’s Bright Futures scholarships just got a little brighter | Editorial

Something unusual happened in Tallahassee this week: Lawmakers listened to young people and turned a bad bill into a not-so-bad bill.

One of this year’s most controversial proposals is Senate Bill 86 to overhaul Florida’s Bright Futures Scholarships and other financial aid. In its original version, the bill would have cut scholarship dollars for students who pick college majors that “do not lead directly to employment,” as determined by the state. It also would have taken away scholarship funds for credits students earn through Advanced Placement courses, creating a disincentive for students to take those courses in high school.

Dozens of students, educators and parents spoke against SB 86 in Tallahassee and inundated lawmakers with emails and letters telling them how bad this proposal was.

It worked.

Bill sponsor Sen. Dennis Baxley, who has said he regretted majoring in sociology before becoming an undertaker, wanted young people to be priced out of getting a degree they wanted. And no one better than government to tell kids what they should study, right? Just ask Cuba and other communist countries.

Baxley also has referred to Bright Futures as an “entitlement program,” even though scholarships are awarded based on merit and academic achievement. That makes us question the kind of people we’re sending to Tallahassee (Baxley is from Ocala, so this one is not on us, South Florida).

That said, Baxley is working to find compromise, and that’s good. He deserves credit for listening and amending the bill, which cleared the Appropriations Subcommittee on Education with a 6-3 vote Tuesday.

Instead of reducing scholarship awards for certain degrees, SB 86 now requires the Board of Governors of the State University System to create a dashboard to “assist students and families in making better informed decisions” on their education. That dashboard would include information such as post-graduation median salaries and debt-to-income ratios and would be used as guidance only.

Students can use that kind of information to make their own — and we mean their own — career choices, even if in the end they choose that liberal-arts degree that might get them a job as a Starbucks barista. That’s good, honest work, too — plus, everyone has to start somewhere.

Baxley has not removed, however, a provision that would allow lawmakers to set scholarship amounts through the budgeting process, rather than keeping them tied to tuition and fees. That’s important because it took lawmakers years to fully fund Bright Futures after tying it to the state budget for year because of the Great Recession.

Luckily, as the Herald has reported, this bill still faces steep barriers. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he doesn’t want to cut Bright Futures, and the House has said it’s not considering any bills on this topic.

SB 86 is unlikely to become law. But it showed that involved citizens still make a difference.

This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 2:52 PM.