Chancellor's ideas for Bright Futures

Sen. Jeremy Ring already proposed a change to Bright Futures that would give larger scholarships to students majoring in "economic development" fields like science, technology, engineering, health and education.

Now Chancellor Mark Rosenberg is outlining suggested changes in a report (Download 20080221_bog_agenda.pdf)to be delivered to the Board of Governors next week. He wants to cap the program at $400-million, using $100-million for need-based aid and $100-million for incentives like Sen. Ring proposes.

The rest would go to merit scholarships under the current rules.

Of course, with Senate President and Bright Futures defender Ken Pruitt still in charge, this isn't likely to be the year of a Bright Futures overhaul...But some are trying anyway.

Comments

We certainly need less Business majors, and more education in the professions which actually produce something.

[Mike]

You either change the program or it dies. I think we should chose the lesser of two evils.

"economic development"

The morons running this State haven't the first damn clue what that really means.

[Morons Running This State]

economic development =
unrestricted growth =
sucking up to developers =
crippling regulatory agencies =
proposing irresponsible tax cuts

any supposed "improvements" coming from the chancellor is like the fox offering a "better" house to the hen . . .

the Higher Ed establishment doesn't care one bit about the middle class.

[terminator]

Ring is a moron and needs to be taken out.

Remember Dems, he's the guy who stripped your delegates from the national convention and made your recent primary vote a play election (he was the Senate sponsor).

The guy is a sellout who wants to butter his own political bread at other's expense.

Bright Futures is one of the few good things the state of Florida has done for public education.

It actually rewards good students who work hard and achieve the criteria set forth (henceforth: merit scholarship).

Under Rosenberg and Ring's plan, Florida would go back to the days of affirmitive action and dish out financial aid to undeserving students who didn't work hard enough in high school but want to lap at the public trough due to their "disadvantaged" status.

Rosenberg and Ring are the main proponents of jacking up university tuition so fatcat university Presidents can get paid even more than they do now ($400K plus) and tenured professors can continue doing "research" while teaching NO students.

Florida parents with high school and college age kids need to speak with Senator Ring by jamming up his email and phone lines all day everyday until he screams uncle.

Just go to: myflorida.com then government, senate, members.

The recommendations go in the right direction, particularly the need based angle.

While tweaking the Bright Futures program with need based criteria, the timing would be perfect to finally phase out FAMU and merge it with FSU.

Why are fields like science, technology, engineering, health and education more important than education or political science? Without education majors teaching our students there would be NO engineers or science majors.

“need-based aid”

Translation:

Lazy, illiterate by choice, children of … irresponsible, lazy, illiterate by choice parents, who have been systemically trained to blame the “white man” for every poor choice THEY make… who will be sifted through the system and given jobs for which they are not qualified… who will then make critical errors… only to blame it on the “white man” who sifted them through the system and gave them jobs for which they are not qualified… but may actually vote for those who made it possible.

9:46

The only people on this earth who "produce" something that is essential for life are farmers. Everything else comes from the excess economic value derived from the plentifulness of food. At first there were only food gatherers/producers, then along came a shaman or two. Today we have teaching golf pros, only because of the luxury afforded us by excess food production. Is that one of the "professions" you refer to?

I believe that you can have too much of a service economy, and workers who depend too much on money, and not on real production.

“a service economy” is great until we reach a point that the middle class can’t afford to be serviced.

Welcome to that point.

[Edy]

Bright Future needs a change. It is draining the system by giving money to many who really don't need it. Let me explain. The average family income of Bright Future recipients at UF is over $100,000. Taxes payers are giving their money to kids who are driving to school in BMWs and the like. These families can not only afford the low tuition in the Florida universities(about the lowest in the nation), but they could even afford to pay a higher tuition. The irony of the situation is that Florida universities will be in a crisis due to the low tuition and lack of funding and will have to freeze enrollment and reject many qualified students while the state is giving away money to those who don't really need it. Another irony is that the "bright" students are really just average. You can qualify by simply getting a 3.0 and a 970 SAT score. That's just average. Bright Futures obviously needs a major overhaul. The only reason why it won't get it is because it is the pet project of Ken Pruitt, the president of the Senate. The pet project costs $400 Million a year which the system desperately needs to expand access and improve quality. Ken Pruitt should stop wasting taxpayers money and admit that his project is not working.