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College grant's penalty painful

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By LINDSAY PETERSON

Lpeterson@tampatrib.com

Published: November 1, 2009

Updated: 11/01/2009 12:33 am

TAMPA - Withdrawing from a class carries a hefty penalty this year for college students with Bright Futures scholarships, but the consequences for lower-income students could be more severe than state lawmakers intended.

The Florida Legislature changed the Bright Futures rules last spring to require recipients to repay the state for classes they drop late in the semester. But as the withdrawal deadline drew near last week, many students were in a panic, afraid an F would cost them their scholarships.

They're feeling the pain of the state's first efforts to rein in the popular but costly state scholarship program. And the reins could get tighter, making it harder for students who struggle with grades, as state lawmakers face rising budget deficits next year.

"We might get more stringent on the SAT scores and the GPA. I don't know," said Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, chairwoman of the Senate Higher Education Appropriations Committee. "We need Bright Futures, but we can't continue to have it the way we've had it all these years."

The new restriction on dropping a class worries Billie Jo Hamilton, the University of South Florida's financial aid director.

"It disproportionately affects high-need students," she said. "As a student, if I'm from an affluent family, I can drop a class, no problem. Mom and dad will write a check. But if I'm struggling to get by, I'm not going to have that luxury to drop that class."

Hamilton doesn't know how many students are in this bind, but several have come into the financial aid office to ask about getting loans to cover what they have to pay back, she said.

USF sophomore Leonne Danso doesn't have family to fall back on, she says. She's struggling with a pre-calculus class, but "whatever I do, I lose."

If she drops the class, she has to pay the state about $400 - money she doesn't have, she said. Forced to stay, she's likely to get a D or an F, which could kill her chances of keeping the grade-point average she needs to qualify for Bright Futures next year.

Many students aren't sweating the change.

"I agree with it," said Ashley Pitts, a sophomore in the USF Honors College. Too many students withdraw from classes to keep from getting bad grades, she said. "I work hard to plan my schedule so I don't have to do that."

Popular program
State lawmakers created the Bright Futures program 12 years ago with Florida's universities in mind to "get as many students as we can to think about college as a goal," Lynn said.

The program pays a substantial portion of tuition and fees, depending on a student's grades and test scores and giving the greatest amount to the highest-performing students.

And it worked.

Nearly 170,000 students received an average payment of more than $2,530 last year, the state Department of Education said. But that success has sapped the lottery fund that pays those bills. Lottery revenue sagged last year, while total Bright Futures obligations topped $429 million.

The problem is twofold: More high school graduates qualify every year, and most of the recipients meet the requirements to keep the scholarship year after year.

Statewide, more than 90 percent of the high achievers, the "Academic scholars" receiving full Bright Futures scholarships, maintained the B average, or 3.0, they needed to keep their scholarships last year. The second-level "Medallion scholars," who receive three-quarter scholarships and need a B-minus average or 2.75 GPA, have had more trouble, particularly in their first year. Last year, 71 percent of first-year recipients met the requirements to get the grant a second time. But second- and third-year recipients had more success.

The relatively small number of "Gold Seal vocational scholars" - 1,557 - struggled to maintain their B-minus requirement. Only 58 percent received money for their second year. The vocational scholarship is for students who have completed a two-year vocational or technical education program.

The state doesn't keep track of why students lose their scholarships. Those who do can get them back after coming into compliance with the requirements. A small percentage does this every year.

Lawmakers realized several years ago that the program was growing beyond its means and began talking about how to cut costs without infuriating thousands of parents who had come to count on the money. Last year, they made the first slices, voting to require students to pay back the state when they drop classes after the drop/add deadline early in the semester.

"Our intention wasn't to hurt anyone's chances of going to college," Lynn said. "But some students were gaming the system," dropping classes just to keep their grades up.

Lawmakers also voted to require students to complete at least 24 hours a year, compared with an earlier 12-hour annual requirement. And they excluded a 15 percent tuition increase from what the scholarship would pay.

"I know this is a very tough economy right now. Parents are having a tough time paying for college for their kids," said state Rep. Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who pushed for the tuition increase and other Bright Futures changes.

"But we also expect students to take a certain number of hours. They need those hours to graduate on time," he said. "There's a balance to be struck."

Payback likely to stay

He said the Legislature will review the effect of the new withdrawal rule and possibly make revisions if it's too stringent. But from Lynn's perspective, on the education appropriations committee, lawmakers aren't likely to undo the payback requirement. The state needs that money.

"It seems like all they care about is money, and not how students are doing," said USF freshman Jennifer Danison, who is failing her college algebra class. She has a Bright Futures Medallion scholarship. She was planning to drop the class, but then her mother would have to pay the bill.

"I can't do that to my mother," she said.

"I think I speak for a lot of students when I say it's really stressful," Danison said. "I'm going to try to get more tutoring (at the USF library), but I just got an e-mail that they're running out of spots because so many people need help."

Freshman Eric Morgan has the top-tier Bright Futures scholarship, but he's failing calculus. He's going to keep the class and risk getting an F, then use USF's grade forgiveness policy to retake the class for a higher grade. But the F will stay on his transcript until he completes the other class, and that could endanger his scholarship.

If a lot of students are failing the same classes, Lynn said, there might be another problem to examine - the quality of the teaching or the students' preparation. But universities can no longer foot the bill for students who withdraw from classes because they haven't done the work to get the grade they want, she said.

A lot of students do that, said USF junior Meredith Gordon.

"I've dropped classes," but not this year, with the new requirements.

"I'm just going to have to study harder."

Reporter Lindsay Peterson can be reached at (813) 259-7834.

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