During the legislative session that begins tomorrow, state lawmakers will vote on a bill allowing colleges and universities to raise tuition up to 15 percent a year for six years. As Whitney Ray tells us, the plan would cost some freshman on bright futures scholarships an extra 2,400 dollars by the time they graduate. <\/p>\n\n

Hear it Here: Tuition Hike Proposal Worries Bright Futures Students<\/a><\/p>\n

Freshman Hannah Clark wouldn?t be at Florida State University if her Bright Future?s Scholarship didn?t pay full tuition costs. <\/p>\n

?I wanted to go away to school, but because of Bright Futures I stayed in Florida,? said Hannah. <\/p>\n

A plan being discussed by lawmakers would allow state universities to raise tuition 15 percent a year over the next six years. The tuition increases wouldn?t be covered by Florida?s Bright Futures Scholarship Program. <\/p>\n

Lawmakers say they had to separate Bright Future from the tuition increase or else the scholarship program would be too expensive for the state.<\/p>\n

Money from the so-called differential tuition increases will help universities keep quality staff and avoid cutting courses. Senator Chris Smith said Bright Futures students need to pay their fair share. <\/p>\n

?When we decided to allow colleges to raise tuitions we wanted to make sure we were fair about, now all students can bare some of the burden,? said Smith. <\/p>\n

Senator Larcenia Bullard said she?ll fight to keep Bright Futures students from paying the increase. <\/p>\n

?The language will need to be tweaked,? said Bullard. <\/p>\n

If the plan is approved Hannah Clark could have to pay 2,400 extra dollars by the time she graduates.<\/p>\n

?My mom would probably make me take out a loan or a job or something,? said Hannah. <\/p>\n

By 2014 Florida students could be paying 17,000 dollars more for a four year degree. Lawmakers may also consider raising the GPA and SAT standards to decrease the number of students eligible for the Bright Futures Scholarships. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During the legislative session that begins tomorrow, state lawmakers will vote on a bill allowing colleges and universities to raise tuition up to 15 percent a year for six years. As Whitney Ray tells us, the plan would cost some freshman on bright futures scholarships an extra 2,400 dollars by the time they graduate. Hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4,22,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4543,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4538\/revisions\/4543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flanews.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}