Florida high school students applying for the state’s college and vocational school scholarship program Bright Futures will be able to substitute paid work experience for volunteering under a bill signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday.
Students who apply for the Bright Futures program starting in the next school year will be able to fulfill the volunteer requirement by working 100 hours. During a bill signing ceremony at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, DeSantis said the change would help low-income families whose teenagers need to work.
Before, students had to volunteer for up to 100 hours to qualify for the scholarship and get tuition at state colleges and universities.
DeSantis said 120,000 students qualified for the scholarship this year, and he hopes the law change will increase that number.
“Not every student has the luxury of being able to just do volunteer hours. I mean, we have students who come from lower-income families who need to work to be able to help support their families, and they should not be denied the opportunity to qualify for a scholarship just because their socioeconomic background makes it more difficult to be able to do this type of volunteer work,” DeSantis said.
The scholarships are awarded to students who attain high grade-point averages and test scores. They receive various amounts based on what level they achieve.
House Bill 461 also allows students who qualify for the Medallion Scholarship under the Bright Futures program to get 100 percent of tuition paid for at state colleges. That’s up from 75 percent.
It’s a bill that had bipartisan support, including from Rep. Angie Nixon, D-Jacksonville, who was a co-sponsor of the House bill.
Nixon said while she supports the change, she hopes that those who can still volunteer will.
In the 2020-21 school year, the state distributed about $650 million to about 120,000 students — an average of $5,400 each.
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