Florida does its state budget in the spring (now). It’s unlikely to change Bright Futures or Benacquisto for this coming year, but after that no one will know.
Being a tourist run economy (Disney, Universal, Daytona 500, beach hotels, etc), the budget is going to get hit. Florida has no income tax, so it really depends on sales taxes and OOS money coming in. I imagine the state is losing millions every month just on lost Disney sales tax, taxes from gasoline sales, tolls on highways.
@vistajay Many thanks for the helpful reply and continuing to post your valuable advice. And also thanks to the rest of the folks here!
I talked to the Fin Aid office at UF and they do not give any guarantee of OOS waiver (or in-state tuition) should Benacquisto go off the table in the coming years. She did confirm that Summer has to be covered by the student at in-state rates.
This has become a concern now due to the current climate. It would have been nice if they guarantee in-state if Benacquisto is given the ax.
UCF sent us a letter guaranteeing Full COA and will be talking to them next week to confirm if this is still the case. Some decisions to make this month!
One other thing about UF is housing. You have to sign by May 1 and you can’t cancel post that date (I was told we will be liable for the entire rent after May 1). While UCF guarantees housing for NMF.
Florida just approved its next budget of $93B which goes into effect July 1. There was an increase in Department of Education funding of about 10%. A positive sign, but of course no one knows what the next 6 months hold at this point. Local, state, national, and world economies are going to be effected to be sure. We’ll have to wait and see to what degree.
Just had a zoom meeting with a Director of Admissions at FSU and they cover the Benacquisto should they lose state funding while he’s there. The wording she used for that scenario was “FSU would commit to funding the student… we want to see them graduate”.
It is really tough to make any decision this year. Most of the schools admitted were never toured before. Now the scholarship part is not certain which makes it worse.
@BMC9670 do you happen to have a link to that new legislation? Also does it have updated Benaquisto wording for 2020-2021? I looked at the 2019 statute and it seems like the 4 year guarantee is written in the state law:
“A student may receive the scholarship award for a maximum of 100 percent of the number of credit hours required to complete a baccalaureate degree program, or until completion of a baccalaureate degree program, whichever comes first.”
While I realize that funding could get pulled and this is no iron-clad guarantee, it seems like at least there would be an argument that existing students should be grandfathered in. I’m going to file this away and all the FL dept of education pages on this just in case. Unfortunately everything out there I’m finding has the 2019 date. I’d feel better if I had updated copies.
Even better, here it states ‘will’ instead of ‘may’:
“This program will provide funds for 100 percent of the number of credit hours required to complete a baccalaureate degree program, or until completion of a baccalaureate degree program, whichever comes first.”
https://www.floridastudentfinancialaidsg.org/PDF/factsheets/FIS.pdf
@7thgenTX I don’t see an update for 2020. I talked to a friend who is a representative here in our state legislature, and she said laws/statutes generally aren’t updated unless there are proposed changes and a vote taken during the legislative session. She also said they can remain in place unchanged for any amount of time unless there is an expiration written into it or some other condition(s) that need to be met, which in most cases would trigger a vote. It might work different in different states, but it makes sense. It’s not realistic that they would update every law/statute every year.
There is a History at the bottom of the statute and only certain years are listed. Perhaps in those years there were changes? The Florida legislative session for 2020 ended in mid-March.
In any case, I’m happy that FSU specifically said they will fund the student should a change in state funding occur. I could not get the same commitment from UF.
@BMC9670 Ok, thanks! I’ll keep the 2019 docs… maybe mostly for my own peace of mind if nothing else.
We have twins, both NMF. My son is into Meteorology, so FSU was the better choice for him. My daughter is into animal science/vet school, so UF was the better choice for her. This is a double-incredible offer for us and we are more than excited. Of course we don’t know the future, but I’ve always been a believer that you make your decisions based on your best info at the time, so I can’t see passing this up for the potential that bad things could happen. If they tell us to bugger off, I’ll argue with all my breath that they implied that the full education would be paid for… if that does no good we’ll fall back to my plan B.
For lots of years I had no idea how I would put two kids through school, knowing nothing about scholarships I thought we would be spending 100k/yr… impossible. So I started looking at European schools which many are free or close… so that could be our plan B.
The law is not updated each year but the funding is. A few years ago (2013? 2014?) I think it was the Florida Resident grant that was underfunded. Basically every student using that fund was shorted by $33. Some schools just ate that amount, some billed the students for the $33. Two years later they actually increased the award (it is based on the cost of tuition at public schools).
I can see the Benacquisto having a similar fate. If the funding goes down, there could be changes to the program, either limiting the number of awards or decreasing the amount for each student.
@7thgenTX Wow! That’s great. And the FSU/UF split will make for some good holiday banter! 
Our thinking is very similar. No twins, but two kids two years apart, so when this opportunity came along, we could not pass it up. We looked into European schools as well. Our kids have US/German dual-citizenship, are fluent speakers, and have relatives there so that is a real option.
So, we’re now dealing with the “why FSU?” questions and it can be frustrating. My son has always been a high academic achiever and has acceptances from higher ranked schools, so some parents, teachers, and counselors look confused when we tell them where he’s going.
Frankly, FSU checks the most boxes for us: cost, good program for his major, good research funding and facilities, decent rank and upward ranking trend, good campus feel. While I don’t think he would have gotten into a T20 school, he applied and was accepted to a few from 20-30. However, those would cost us between $120k-$200k, which we can’t afford. We are self-employed and FAFSA doesn’t take into account your entire financial history, but only recent tax returns and current snapshot, so they think we are better off that we are, leading to a high EPC.
In the end, draining our savings and/or taking on student loan debt was not worth the prestige of a “better name”, especially when we have another child to put through 2 years from now. We’ll have another look in 4 years if he decides to go to grad school. If not, he’ll have a marketable degree from a solid school… and no debt.
@twoinanddone Good to know. Thanks. All the more reason to get a commitment from the school.
I am little confused. How does the funding go down? Is there a set amount of money allocated to Benequisito? Are you saying this may not cover COA for all admitted students?
@BMC9670 Thanks! I bleed orange (Longhorn) and have not been exposed to the Florida rivalries too much but I’m getting acquainted. Looks like it will be fun!
We told our kids that graduating with no debt is HUGE! We want them to go on for advanced degrees and therefore this won’t be a sprint but a marathon. In my view the FSU/UF options are the highest ranked full ride options we could find, but regardless an education is more about you than the school you go to.
Hey, I’m a little late to the party but does anyone know what I’m supposed to do for the summer class requirement? It looks like we have to pay for that right?
Hypothetically I wonder what will happen with the Benacquisto scholarship if univ of Florida has only online classes in the fall. I’m assuming the scholarship would still pay for the online tuition. I wonder what happened to those with the Benacquisto this spring from March through June.
@twinmommy , nothing happened this spring of 2020 re Benacquisto funding. It was fully funded and paid before the schools went online.
@culverschicken , yes you have to pay for summer tuition and housing, though you can get in state tuition rates if you re OOS. Benacquisto does not cover summer.
@vistajay what I meant was how would the Benacquisto handle if oos students have to take online classes? Would it still pay tuition in the fall?
@twinmommy not sure. It is budgeted by Legislature for full funding, so whatever tuition is charged will be paid. Housing is more up in the air. My son would live off campus and likely be in Tallahassee whether or not they are online, so he still would need the scholarship money for housing. However, many would stay at home, especially freshmen.
I’m thinking of taking a gap year/semester rather than Zoom College (in the unlikely scenario it comes to that) so will I not be able to do that under the scholarship