TY - JOUR
T1 - The Effect of Florida's Bright Futures Program on College Enrollment and Degree Production
T2 - An Aggregated-Level Analysis
AU - Zhang, Liang
AU - Hu, Shouping
AU - Sensenig, Victor
N1 - Funding Information:
The state of Florida was one of the earliest states to adopt a state sponsored merit aid program. In 1981, the state established the Florida Undergraduate Scholars Fund (which later became the Florida Academic Scholars Award), a merit-based financial aid program. In 1991, Florida introduced its second statewide merit-based program when it initiated the Vocational Gold Seal Scholarship (which later became the Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars award) specifically for vocational students. After observing the HOPE scholarship program in neighboring Georgia and voters’ discontent with the use of state lottery proceeds, the Florida legislature created and funded the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program in 1997, somewhat mirroring Georgia’s HOPE scholarship program. The previously existing two programs in the state, Florida Academic Scholars Award (FAS) for students on academic tracks and Florida Gold Seal Vocational Scholars Award (GSV) for students on vocational tracks, were integrated into the newly created Bright Futures program with the addition of the Florida Medallion Scholars Award (FMS), also for students on academic tracks. The major changes in 1997, when the Bright Futures program was
PY - 2013/11
Y1 - 2013/11
N2 - In this study, we investigate the impact of the Bright Futures Scholarship Program on college enrollment and degree production in Florida by using IPEDS enrollment, migration, and completion data. Results suggest large and significant enrollment effects at Florida's public 4- and 2-year institutions, for both full-time and part-time enrollment. This large growth is at least in part due to reduced out-migration of Florida's resident students attending out-of-state institutions. Thus the net effect is lower than the enrollment growth in Florida. Finally, our results indicate that the effect of Bright Futures on degree production is lower than that on enrollment. This aggregated-level analysis provides an important baseline for our future research on the effect of Bright Futures on students' college attendance, choice, financial aid renewal, persistence, and graduation by using detailed individual-level data.
AB - In this study, we investigate the impact of the Bright Futures Scholarship Program on college enrollment and degree production in Florida by using IPEDS enrollment, migration, and completion data. Results suggest large and significant enrollment effects at Florida's public 4- and 2-year institutions, for both full-time and part-time enrollment. This large growth is at least in part due to reduced out-migration of Florida's resident students attending out-of-state institutions. Thus the net effect is lower than the enrollment growth in Florida. Finally, our results indicate that the effect of Bright Futures on degree production is lower than that on enrollment. This aggregated-level analysis provides an important baseline for our future research on the effect of Bright Futures on students' college attendance, choice, financial aid renewal, persistence, and graduation by using detailed individual-level data.
KW - College enrollment
KW - Degree production
KW - Merit based aid
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U2 - 10.1007/s11162-013-9293-8
DO - 10.1007/s11162-013-9293-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84885929872
SN - 0361-0365
VL - 54
SP - 746
EP - 764
JO - Research in Higher Education
JF - Research in Higher Education
IS - 7
ER -