While Florida’s Bright Futures scholarships no longer pay the entire tuition bill at the state’s public universities as they once did, they are still a valuable source of financial support for thousands of students. Recent increases in the minimum scores on SAT and ACT college entrance exams required for Bright Futures eligibility have sparked some […]

State university leaders want to add $45 million in needs-based financial aid to help make up for changes to the Bright Futures scholarship program. Those new, higher qualifications will eliminate more than $250 million a year in college aid by 2018. The State University System Board of Governors will discuss the proposal today. UPDATE: The […]

Most new Palm Beach College Students were going through orientation earlier this month, but Jake Seiler was wrapping up his first three courses. Despite earning the highest SAT scores of his two siblings — 1100, on six attempts — Seiler didn’t score high enough this year to earn the Bright Futures Florida Medallion scholarship his […]

About half as many students will qualify for Bright Futures scholarships when the school year begins this fall as did during the current year, according to new estimates from the Florida College Access Network. That’s because lawmakers have steadily increased requirements for the primarily lottery-funded scholarships, raising minimum scores required on the SAT and ACT […]

More than half of Florida’s Hispanic and black students at state universities currently eligible for the state’s Bright Futures college scholarship would no longer qualify when new standards take effect on July 1, according to a University of South Florida analysis obtained by the Florida College Access Network. By comparison, about 40 percent of white […]

With no discussion or fanfare, the Senate Education Committee has approved a bill that would remove a small piece of red tape for students who want to receive Bright Futures scholarships. Under the bill, SB 680, students would not be required to submit a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The FAFSA requirement went […]

Bright Futures money is being targeted again, this time by a government watchdog group that says the state should raise requirements for the merit-based scholarship program. The lottery revenues which fund the scholarships aren’t stretching as far as they used to. Lawmakers made changes to the Bright Futures program in recent years, as more college […]

A Florida lawmaker who filed a bill that would make Bright Futures recipients stay in Florida after graduation seems to have changed his mind. A spokesman for Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Lecanto, told the Orlando Sentinel that Smith will withdraw the bill that was filed this month. It would have required college graduates to stay and […]

A Florida lawmaker has filed a bill that would force most Bright Futures recipients to stay in Florida after graduation or pay back the scholarship money. Rep. Jimmie Smith, R-Inverness, wants the bill to serve as an incentive to keep Florida’s top graduates in the state. House Bill 35 says a graduate must stay and […]

We’ve spent the week looking at how Bright Futures scholarships have changed over the last fifteen years. Bottom line: More students are getting the money, but the awards aren’t going as far as they used to in covering the cost of college or university tuition. The program establishes three lottery-funded scholarships for high academic achievers. […]