In Life, There are No Guarantees – Dennis Baxley Gets Real about Bright Futures Funding.
“I’m just being real, I’m being truthful with people instead of a false promise that I really don’t know what the future holds and I need to be honest about that…” – Senator Dennis Baxley (R-12) 3/13/21
When Senator Baxley’s controversial Bright Futures bill, SB86, was heard before the Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee on 03/23/21, he made it clear that Florida’s government can make no future funding guarantees. Bright Futures, he said, remains a very strong priority, “the top priority” even. Then he suggested that the lottery proceeds which fund Bright Futures could be used “to improve education over all” but, for now, the Legislature had no intention of reducing Bright Future scholarships… for now. The amendment he passed during the 3/23 committee stop was clearly written to give future legislatures flexibility to reduce scholarship funding if future priorities were to change… He reiterated “I think it’s a lot more honest for people to say, we can’t guarantee what’s going to happen…”
Hmmm… his suggestion that, rather than funding Bright Futures, Florida Lottery money could be used “to improve education over all” is a red flag. I am willing to bet that the plan, down the road, is to use lottery proceeds to fund expansion to universal private school vouchers in Florida, like the ESAs created in SB48/HB7045 this session. Like the senator says: “we can’t guarantee what’s going to happen…” but we can read the writing on the wall…
Since its initial filing, SB86 has been amended multiple times, but remains controversial. Thousands of constituents have reportedly bombarded Florida seniors offices with phone calls and emails in opposition to Senate Bill 86. To date, it does not have a House companion but, being Florida, anything could still happen.
The original bill aimed to limit full funding to students whose majors would “lead directly to employment” and to diminish award values to students who earned college credit during high school, through Advanced Placement and other acceleration programs. The bill was amended at its first stop in the Senate Education Committee, to reduce funding to qualified students who chosen course of study fell into “a list of majors determined NOT lead directly to employment.” At that meeting, Senator Thurston, a Democrat, filed an amendment to remove the degree program list but Baxley said that the primary intent of the bill was to limit scholarship funding to “programs that are beneficial to the student, state and the environment of the economy.” Thurston’s amendment was denied by a party line vote. Ultimately, the bill passed the Education Committee along a party line vote, as well.
In the meantime, the opposition to SB86 by parents, students and other constituents continued. By the time the bill got to the 3/23/21 Education Appropriations subcommittee, Baxley has decided that Thurston’s earlier amendment wasn’t that bad after all, and he filed another delete-all amendment, uncoupling the scholarship value from the “unemployable majors” and removing the reductions related to Advanced Placement and other acceleration programs. For the record, Baxley deleted the portion of the bill that, just one week earlier, he had claimed was the “primary intent” of the bill.
Baxley’s new delete-all amendment removed the previously promised value of the Bright Futures Scholarships (100 percent of tuition and fees for Florida Academic Scholar recipients and 75 percent of tuition and fees for Florida Medallion Scholar recipients) leaving the determination of the scholarship value up to the whims of the annual appropriations process.
To be clear, the funding for the Bright Futures Scholarship Program (which was funded at $619 million last year) would continue to come from Florida Lottery proceeds (almost $2 billion/year set aside for education). By statute, f.s. 1009.53 (4), Bright Futures funding is prioritized before the lottery proceeds are disbursed to any other “educational entity.” If the amended SB86 passes, the appropriations committee could decide to fund recipients 100% tuition in good years or, say, 50% tuition when budgets were tight. Senator Cruz argued that financial planning for college would be impossible without the guarantees currently provided to Bright Futures recipients. Baxley responded that such guarantees were unrealistic and that people needed to stop relying on the government and learn to be self-reliant like he was, saying he paid his own way through college, working 50 hours/week, and that the legislature can’t continue to “bind legislatures” by making Bright Futures promises that they may not be able to meet. He said families are going to have to “deal with the realities” just like he had to plan quarter to quarter when he was in college…
“And I think that’s more realistic approach to life, that we can’t guarantee you everything gonna be just like it was because the world’s always changing, and there’s always events and circumstances occurring…
Let’s pause for a look at College Affordability, then and now:
In 1974, when Senator Baxley graduated from Florida State University, the annual tuition was $570. (adjusted for inflation that would be $3,041 today). Minimum wage was $2/hr, meaning a student would have to work 285 hours (just over 7 weeks of full time employment, ignoring payroll taxes) to pay for their annual tuition.
Currently, annual tuition at Florida State is $5,656 and minimum wage is $8.56/hr, meaning that a student needs to work 661 hrs (16.5 weeks of full time employment, ignoring payroll taxes) to pay for their annual tuition.
Tuition isn’t the only cost that has risen. Textbook costs have risen more than 1,000 percent since the 1970s. The College Board now suggests that students set aside $1,200 each year for books and other course materials. It would take a student, working full time at minimum wage, an additional 140 hours (3.5 weeks), just to cover the cost of books every year.
Recent estimates show Cost of Food and Housing at FSU is currently just over $11,250/year, with mandatory health insurance costing students an additional $2,786.
Currently, Bright Futures awards cover tuition, leaving students to cover the remaining estimated $15,000 annually (equivalent to 1,752 hours of work at minimum wage, or 43 weeks of full time employment).
All together, the cost of tuition, books and living expenses are estimated to be just under $21,000/year, which would require 61 weeks of full time employment at minimum wage – ignoring payroll taxes. You don’t have to be college educated to know there are only 52 weeks in a year.
For most students, even those earning Bright Futures’ highest awards, college is simply not affordable without additional scholarships and generous financial aid packages. So yes, times have changed since Senator Baxley earned his Sociology degree in 1974 and Florida’s parents are wise to start planning for their children’s college expenses as soon as possible.
Back to discussing the bill: Senator Travis Hutson reminded the committee that Bright Futures funding had always been part of the appropriations process and he couldn’t recall cuts to Bright Futures in the past, so he was okay with removing the statutory requirement for the 100%/75% tuition awards. Senator Baxley suggested that the legislature also SIGNIFICANTLY funds Higher Ed at the university level, bringing in-state tuition costs down, suggesting that the state had many ways to lower the financial burden of a college education.
For the record, Florida has NOT been a standout in Higher Ed funding:
The annual State Higher Education Finance (SHEF) report, produced by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO), provides analysis of state-level and national funding and enrollment trends over time. The most recent report suggests Florida had made below average investments in Higher Ed over the past two decades, with below average higher education appropriations per pupil and the lowest total per pupil funding in the nation.
There is little suggestion that funding for Higher Ed will improve in the near future. This past week brought the first public look at the Florida Legislature’s budget proposals for the 2021-22 fiscal year. While there is no call for tuition increases, both chambers’ initial budgets propose significant cuts to Florida’s universities. There is no evidence that this legislature has any intention of “significant” funding at the University level.
While the Democrats on the committee continued to ask about the financial aspects of the bill, pointing out that lottery revenues far exceed the costs of the current Bright Futures program and there has never been a concern that a qualified student might receive less than their promised Bright Futures award for their entire 4 years, Baxley remained steadfast that such promises were somehow dishonest saying:
“I’m just being real, I’m being truthful with people instead of a false promise that I really don’t know what the future holds and I need to be honest about that. And they need to handle the truth that nothing’s tied down, you don’t know if you’ll have a job 4 years from now, you don’t know if anybody will. We all lay great expectations and we work towards fulfilling those and we have and we will”
All this insistence on honesty almost make one forget that just a week earlier Senator Baxley was insisting that the primary intent of the bill was to focus scholarship funding on those students whose majors would “lead directly to employment.” I suspect the primary intent of the bill is (and probably always was) about the funding. When Senator Tina Polsky asked him about the funding through the lottery, Baxley replied:
“I would add a caveat that the Constitution is clear that those public funds that are collected through the lottery are to go to “education,” but that’s a very broad space and may get applied differently depending on… now we’ve made conscious decisions for a number of year to prioritize our scholarship program out of there, but that’s the real nature of it is the constitution says for education.
at 20:00 https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/3-23-21-senate-appropriations-subcommittee-on-education/
He is correct. The Constitution is clear. The lottery funds are meant to fund education and they do – since its inception, the lottery has generated more than $37 billion for education. In 1986, the lottery was approved by Florida voters through a constitutional amendment that would set aside a portion of proceeds for public education. When Bright Futures Scholarships were created by lawmakers in 1997, they were to be completely funded by the Lottery.
Today, just over 70% of the lottery proceeds go to prizes and administration, the remaining ~27% is split between Bright Futures scholarship recipients, state colleges and universities, and K-12 schools. In the 2019-2020 school year, 28.5% of the lottery education funding ($595,143,167) went toward Bright Futures. School districts received about 43 percent of the fund for things like School Recognition Funds, class size reduction and workforce education. Any leftovers are distributed to school districts as discretionary Lottery funds. The remainder of the lottery generated education funding goes to state universities (18.4%) and other student financial need (3.1%). Last year alone, the Florida Education Lottery transferred $1,913,799,000.00 to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. Yes, that’s just under $2 BILLION. Of that, $618,607,164.84 was spent on Bright Futures.
The Florida Lottery generates PLENTY of money to cover Bright Futures and other current education expenses… unless there was ANOTHER education expense that needed funding…
I hope I am wrong but I think this bill is a set up to allow Florida Lottery proceeds to be used to fund Florida’s $1 Billion/year (and growing) private school voucher program. Remember how Senator Baxley suggested that, in the future, lottery money could be used “to improve education over all…” A staunch supporter of vouchers, he would see them as a way of “improving education over all.” Both the Senate (SB48, co-sponsored by Baxley) and the House (HB7045) have voucher expansion bills moving through committees. Both massively expand voucher programs, converting them into Education Savings Accounts with minimal oversight and even less accountability. Eventually, these programs will need a funding source, if not now, then definitely in the future.
The privatization of K-12 education appears to be threatening Bright Futures funding. Neither is good for our kids or our communities. Please continue to pressure your senators to Save Bright Futures and oppose SB86 – and while you’re at it, ask your legislators to save your public schools and oppose SB48 and HB7045, as well.
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