[sunrico90]

The scholarship that's given a brighter future to so many students in the sunshine state is losing some of its funding.

Nearly 32,000 Florida college students are getting hit with a budget double whammy.

The state is cutting funding to some bright futures' scholars, giving them $225 dollars a semester instead of the $300 dollars they are getting now.

Tuition is also going up five percent at the state's eleven public institutions in January.

[TriMT7]

Bright futures has been credited with keeping tuition costs lower than they would be otherwise, because the state is reluctant to allow colleges to raise tuitions and thus have to pay more.

It's a great program, I hope they get back on the ball and, ya know, actually use lottery proceeds to fund the program fully as promised.

[tallrick]

Seriously, they have to find ways to stop tuition from going up over the rate of "inflation". Then again we know that the "inflation" rate is vastly underreported.

[sunrico90]

For fiscal year 2006-2007, the Florida Lottery transferred $1.26 billion to the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund. For the fifth time in the Florida Lottery's 19-year history the agency surpassed the billion-dollar mark in a single year, thereby pushing contribution since start-up to more than $17 billion. Although that size contribution is only a small part of the state's overall education budget, the impact of the Florida Lottery on public education flows from community to community.