'Bright Futures' demands brighter scores

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - High School Senior Tori Bradley scored a 1280 on her SAT: more than enough points to land her a full Bright Futures scholarship. “It’s going to pay for a lot of my undergraduate, because, I’m going to have graduate school to pay for.”

The scholarship program was started in 1997, with a few thousand being awarded the first year; now 170-thousand students are receiving Bright Futures.

The scholarship program costs the state more than 400 million dollars last year, but lawmakers have a plan to shave a 100 million off the cost by raising the standards.

Board of Governors Chancellor Frank Brogan says the program is getting too expensive. “If I were going to give any student advice today, middle school, high school, or even elementary, I would say start working for that Bright Futures Scholarship now.”

To qualify for the full award students must score a 1270 or higher on the SAT. For the class of 2013 the standards will be raised 10 points. The qualifying standard will top off in 2014, when students will have to score a 1290 for the top award.

Senior Chris Hill scored a 1320, but is still disheartened to see the standards go up. “It’s still just a bad situation for students where they are going to have to continually increase every year because that’s going to be difficult and the test isn’t going to get any easier.”

In 2008 the average SAT score in Florida was 993, good enough for a partial scholarship now, but not for the class of 2013.

The standards are going up even more for students looking to land a partial Bright Futures scholarship. Right now students can get 75 percent of their classes paid for if they score a 970 or better. By 2014, they’ll need to score a 1050.