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Editorial: Increase aid for low-income students

 
Published Dec. 12, 2014

A long-running complaint that requirements for Florida's Bright Futures scholarships discriminated against minority high school graduates was closed by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights last week, which says it found "no evidence of intentional discrimination." What it did find — "statistically significant disparities, by race, even among otherwise qualified applicants" — should still get lawmakers' attention in a state with a rapidly expanding Hispanic population and where African-American students have been less likely in recent years to enroll in state universities. For Florida to fulfill its own bright future requires educating the next generation to its fullest potential, regardless of race or ethnicity, and that requires providing more need-based financial aid for college.

The Bright Futures scholarship program was poorly designed from the start. Aimed at keeping the brightest high school graduates in state for college, lawmakers initially set the bar so low for standardized test scores and grade point averages that the program became a middle-class entitlement for many families who didn't need the financial help to send their children to college. Worse, the largesse came at the expense of need-based aid, shutting out many other students who were college-capable but whose families did not have the means to get them to school.

The result: African-American participation in Florida's state university system has been dropping and Hispanic students, despite making up a larger share of the state's high school graduates, aren't participating at the same rate as they did before.

Finally, in 2011 lawmakers raised Bright Futures qualification standards to more accurately meet the goal of directing merit-based money to the best students. In 2013, that meant 38 percent fewer freshmen at state universities qualified, but the impact was disproportionate for minority students: 47 percent fewer Hispanic freshmen qualified and 62 percent fewer black freshmen. In September, the state's universities estimated they would need $45 million more in need-based aid next year to compensate for the loss in Bright Futures funding for low-income students, who are more likely to be minorities.

It makes sense to limit merit-based aid to only the best students. But now lawmakers also need to be more realistic about helping lower-income students who otherwise may not get to college at all. The 2015 Legislature needs to help Florida's low-income and college-capable high school graduates achieve their fullest potential by providing more need-based aid.