Even though she has a full Bright Futures scholarship, Anna Hall works three days a week to pay for college.
The UF sustainability and the built environment junior received the scholarship in Spring 2015 but now has to work to pay for part of her schooling due to rising tuition costs, she said.
But on March 9, the Florida Senate voted 35-1 to pass a bill that could ease Hall’s financial burdens. Senate Bill 2 seeks to improve financial aid for students and help them graduate on time, according to The Miami Herald.
Hall said her scholarship covered a fixed rate for college costs, but tuition prices increased as the scholarship amount remained the same. She started working at CCC Transportation, a Newberry trucking company to cover the $420 difference for this semester.
“It’s kind of a bummer to have worked so hard in high school to make a cut, see that I got 100 percent and then see that it only pays for about 60 percent of my actual tuition,” the 20-year-old said.
The proposed bill, introduced by Republican Sen. Bill Galvano, who represents District 21, includes restoring complete funding for Bright Futures scholars, expanding the scholarship to include summer terms and establishing a block-tuition rate for in-state and out-of-state full-time students.
The bill is the cornerstone of Senate President Joe Negron’s higher education priorities, the Herald reported.
It will also change universities’ performance metrics, which the Florida Legislature uses to award funding, to include shortening the expected graduation rate for students seeking bachelor’s degrees from six years to four years.
Senators are debating changing criteria for Bright Futures money, according to the Herald.
Democrats want to change qualifications from merit-based to need-based, while Republicans support the current system, the Herald reported.
The Senate has about two months left in session, so the bill could change, UF spokesperson Janine Sikes wrote in an email.
Hall said because the scholarship is merit-based, it allowed her to apply.
“Students like me who don’t fit in a lot of categories, like minorities, can get it,” said Hall, who is white. “It’s nice that there’s a scholarship based on academic success and not on family background.”
If the bill passes, it could impact about 45,000 Florida students for the 2017 to 2018 school year, which would cost about $151 million, according to the Herald.
Some senators are concerned universities could lose millions if the bill passes, the Herald reported.
Sikes said in the 2015 to 2016 school year, 65 percent of UF undergraduates received Bright Futures funding.
“Both measures (Bright Futures and block tuition) are expected to save students on out-of-pocket expenses for tuition,” she said.
Contact Jimena Tavel at jtavel@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter at @taveljimena
