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Don't hurt the prepaid tuition plan, but reconsider Bright Futures
© St. Petersburg Times Sandy D'Alemberte, the departing president of Florida State University, asked me to make a little mental chart. He labeled the left side of the chart "Tuition." The bottom was labeled, "State Support," which means tax dollars. "Some states have low tuition, but high state support," D'Alemberte explained. "There's North Carolina, for example. "Some states have high tuition and low state support, like Pennsylvania. "Some states have both high tuition and high support, like Michigan. "And then there are some states with both low tuition, and low state support." Like ... guess who? Florida is among the cheapskates of the states when it comes to higher education. Florida also is simply not getting enough kids into college. We rank near the bottom in college-bound high school seniors. We rank 45th in degrees awarded per capita. That is not the way to make Florida better. That is the way to make sure that more Floridians live by flipping burgers for tourists. The trouble, of course, is that there isn't any money to get better. The state Legislature is not going to raise taxes, period. And every spare education dollar for years to come will have to go to grades K-12, to pay for smaller class sizes. So Florida's choice boils down to: (A) Do nothing, and court mediocrity. (B) Get more money elsewhere -- most likely by raising tuition. This week, a state advisory council voted for option (B). That recommendation now will be considered by the state Board of Education, and then the Legislature. As things stand now, Florida ranks 48th among the states in tuition levels. College students in Florida pay only about 25 percent of the cost of their education. The council recommended that tuition levels rise sharply. Of course, that creates a different problem -- it makes college even less affordable for the less-well-off. So the council also recommended that a percentage of new tuition and fee increases be set aside for financial aid. These changes might mean trouble for two existing, popular ideas in Florida: our Bright Futures scholarship and the state's prepaid tuition program. A newcomer might find the scope of Bright Futures stunning. The program now pays all or most of the tuition for a majority of undergraduates now enrolled in Florida. All you need to qualify for a 75-percent scholarship is a 970 on the SAT and a B average. This year, there are almost 121,000 Bright Futures recipients. The budget for this year's program is $218.9-million. It seems like a noble goal, to pay all or most of the tuition of any Florida high school student who qualifies. Yet D'Alemberte, and a growing number of others, think that Bright Futures is taking Florida the wrong way. D'Alemberte points out that as a family's income rises, so generally do test scores and high-school grades. Do we really need to be giving taxpayer-paid scholarships to the best-off in our society? "We do a good job of getting financial aid to people who don't need it, and do a poor job of getting it to people who do need it," he says. Even the proposed change to Bright Futures -- a reduced scholarship for the lower level of recipients -- is a little regressive, since the highest achievers, who still would get full scholarships, tend to enjoy a higher level of family income. As for Florida's prepaid tuition program, which started in the 1980s, it has been a fabulous success. At the moment, 737,000 families have contracts guaranteeing their sons and daughters a future college education. Unfortunately, the prospect of fast-rising tuition -- along with a proposal to let each school set its own tuition level -- threatens the program. Existing contracts would be honored, but one day there might be a cutoff for new ones. That would be a bitter shame. Florida is being driven toward higher tuition. That will mean the state has a moral duty to expand need-based assistance. As part of the chain reaction, that means reconsidering the scope and nature of Bright Futures. As for prepaid tuition, surely the Legislature can find a way to keep that covenant with the people who have proven their faith in it.
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