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Bright futures abound, but beginning this fall new and returning students will have fill out a form: the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.  Florida State University studen Theo Strom of Jacksonville says the requirement is news to him ”ah..I was not aware of that, no.”

The provision is the first time the state has collected financial data on Bright Futures. Students fear it could be the first step in requiring not only good grades but financial need as well. “That’s not fair at all cause you work for your GPA to get the money”, says student Miranda Wilhelm of Daytona Beach”

Gabriel Diaz, a student from Miami, says Bright Futures cash is important to him “So Bright Futures really helps people like me who aren’t quite exceedingly rich, but not quite, you know very need based, so I think if Bright Futures turned need based that would be terrible”.

Every year that there has been a Bright Futures scholarship, there has been an attempt to make it needs based.  Sponsor Evelyn Lynn,  a State Senator from Ormond Beach, says she will fight against any attempts to require a needs analysis for the popular scholarships, but adds “We would like to have the data on how many students actually fall into a need based category and how many are not in that need based category, says the Republican Senator from Central Florida”.

We caught up with parents Glenn and Sherry Fell on the FSU campus. Sherry believes their freshman’s good grades are all that should be required “I feel if they worked for it, they deserve it”.

Next spring, after lawmakers are armed with new financial information, the effort to make Bright Futures more need based will almost certainly be fought again. More than two hundred thousand students have received Bright Futures. The new financial requirement takes effect July first.