Budget reductions spare private schools--for now, The Ledger (Lakeland)

January 19, 2009
By Cary McMullen


Private colleges in Polk County will not suffer any immediate ill effects from state budget cuts made recently at a special session of the Florida Legislature.

But college administrators fear that $11 million or more in aid to students may be in jeopardy in next year's budget.

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Low marks on higher education, St. Pete Times

December 28, 2008
By Donald R. Eastman IIIThe three-ring circus of politicians, higher education and declining tax revenues in Florida is certainly entertaining, but it obscures the real issues of quality and access and further diminishes the confidence of taxpayers that their dollars will be used effectively. Consider:

• The absence of a statewide strategy and an effective coordinating body for higher education — since the demise of the Board of Regents — has been destructive of both public confidence and efficient allocation of tax dollars. Florida has spent more money on studies of how to improve the higher education system — many of them, including the recent Pappas Report and the 2004 Florida Council of 100 Report, quite good — than it has on putting those plans into effect. The current "forums" being sponsored by a few elected officials and the Florida Chambers of Commerce are a wholly unnecessary exercise. There are already plenty of good plans lying around; choose one!

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Helping hire ed, Florida Today

December 7, 2008

Space Coast parents of students hoping to attend state universities with the help of Bright Futures scholarships should pay close attention to a tuition hike proposal that could soon hit them where it hurts.

The proposal — which comes from Gov. Charlie Crist — does this:

Allows the 11 public universities to raise differential tuition 15 percent a year starting next fall until Florida rates reach the national average, now $6,585. Average tuition at a Florida university this year is $3,800.

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University of Florida becomes more selective; parents, students left outside looking in, Sun Sentinel

By Scott Travis
December 5, 2008

Many see the University of Florida as a school that has it all: top-notch academics, winning sports teams and great parties, all for a low price.

But as the school's popularity soars, a growing number of well-qualified Florida students are feeling shut out.UF once was a school most good students in the state could attend. But in recent years, even those with high grade-point averages and SAT scores routinely are denied admission. As high school seniors now wait for that letter from Gainesville, many are wondering why it's so hard to get into the state's flagship university.

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Bright Futures: College costs zoom, Jacksonville.com

December 4, 2008

State budget woes could mean some cloudy skies ahead for the state's popular Bright Futures Scholarship Program.

At the least, a $2 billion projected shortfall in the state's budget has put the program in play for a discussion in the Legislature about whether some changes should be made.

That wouldn't be all bad.

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Gov. Crist's overdue epiphany, The Ledger (Lakeland)

November 29, 2008


Finally, Gov. Charlie Crist has stopped turning a blind eye to the dire financial plight of Florida's public universities.

The governor this month reversed two years of inexplicable and harmful opposition to raising tuition rates at Florida's 11 state universities and unveiled a "reform" proposal that would, among other things, allow the schools to increase tuition as much as 15 percent a year, but no more than 40 percent in a three-year period. Analysts estimate the tuition hikes could generate as much as $1.5 billion in new and badly needed higher-education funding over the next seven years.

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Scholarship program in legislators' looking glass, Pensacola News Journal

By Stepehn D. Price
November 27, 2008

The popular Bright Futures Scholarship Program could face legislative scrutiny next spring in the midst of a third straight year of state budget cuts.

Lawmakers have been slow to change Bright Futures, even defeating a bill earlier this year that would have increased Bright Futures grants to science, math and technology students, while decreasing awards to other fields

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State universities' leader gives own view on health of system, Miami Herald

By Nirvi Shah
November 23, 2008

Mark Rosenberg has led the Florida university system since 2005, a time marked by budget cuts, turf wars and tuition hikes -- including a bump of 15 percent that Gov. Charlie Crist proposed this past week.

The 59-year-old father of two college-age students (yes, they attend state schools) is stepping down as chancellor in February to return to Florida International University, where he previously served as provost, vice president and acting president.

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Florida education official speaks on tuition battle, Independent Florida Alligator

By Chelsea Keenan
October 23, 2008

The tug–of–war for tuition–setting power between the state Legislature and the Board of Governors has no end in sight, according to a former higher education official who spoke at UF on Wednesday.

Robin Gibson, UF alumnus and former chairman of the Florida Board of Regents, spoke about issues of tuition, capped enrollment and Bright Futures to about 35 people at Pugh Hall.

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Bridght Futures prospects look dim, Gainesville Sun

By Nathan Crabbe
October 8, 2008


The Bright Futures scholarship program should be phased out over the course of a decade, state Sen. Steve Oelrich said Wednesday to a University of Florida community group.

Most UF students use the program despite a lack of financial need, said Oelrich, a Cross Creek Republican who chairs the Senate Higher Education committee.

Nearly 95 percent of freshmen use the scholarships to pay for tuition, while the most recent statistics show the median income of all UF students' families is around $100,000.

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Bright Futures Scholarships Doled Out to Lackluster Students, Hernando Today (Tampa Tribune)

By John Reiniers
September 16, 2008

Florida's Board of Governors and others routinely criticize the Bright Futures scholarship program approved by Florida's voters in 1986. The issue is a political one, not educational.Florida's educational system is underfunded, but it can't be blamed on Bright Futures. Education is the responsibility of the Legislature, not the secretary of Florida's Lottery. Bright Futures should simply be icing on the cake.

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Budget cuts another blow to weakened universities, Miami Herald

By Oscar Corral
August 17, 2008

When college students start the fall term at the state's public universities next week, they can expect fewer choices for majors and classes, more crowded classrooms, and a faculty that's being lured away by other states at an alarming rate.

Deep budget cuts imposed by the state Legislature this year have resulted in the elimination of the industrial engineering major at Florida International University, the Diabetes Research and Training Center at the University of Florida, and many others around the state. The money crunch prompted FIU to put its staff on a four-day work week over the summer.

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Unitended Consequences of State Merit-Based Aid, Inside Higher Education

May 29, 2008

It is by now well-established that the high profile and expensive merit-based financial aid programs that numerous states have established to keep their best and brightest in college within state borders are far from the panacea their supporters envisioned. While the programs have often accomplished the goal of encouraging top-notch high school students to attend local colleges and making college more affordable for state residents, they have been criticized for disproportionately favoring higher-income students over those from low-income backgrounds and doing relatively little to encourage students who might not otherwise have gone to college to do so.

A study presented this week at the annual forum of the Association for Institutional Research suggests that, at least in one case, a state merit-based financial aid program may be working directly at odds with another priority that is near the top of concerns of most state and federal policy makers and educators: increasing the flow of Americans into scientific and technological fields.

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