Thursday, March 11, 2004

Stetson Day puts spotlight on grants

By CINDI BROWNFIELD and DEBORAH CIRCELLI
NEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITERS

Bryan Funk chose Stetson University over two prestigious out-of-state colleges, in part, because of a state-funded grant.

So when lawmakers cut the Florida Resident Access Grant for students who attend the state’s private colleges by $435 this year, Funk was alarmed.

“If I can’t count on the grants and scholarships I receive, I can’t attend school,” said Funk, 20, a Tampa sophomore who also receives the state’s Bright Futures scholarship and works full time to make ends meet.

On Wednesday, he took his complaint – along with 532 letters from Stetson students – to Tallahassee during Stetson University Day in the Florida Legislature. Local lawmakers, including two who attended a Stetson-organized news conference at the Capitol, said they support increasing the grant for next school year.

The tuition-assistance grant, nicknamed the FRAG, was created in 1979 to encourage more Florida residents to attend Stetson, Bethune-Cookman College, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the state’s 25 other private colleges.

The idea was to save the state money by reducing the number of students at overcrowded public universities. Floridians who are full-time undergraduates at private, nonprofit colleges in the state qualify for the automatic grant, which students don’t repay.

The grant was worth $2,251 per student this year – 20 percent less than when it peaked three years ago. Statewide, 31,329 students received the grant.

By comparison, the state pays between $7,500 and $10,000 annually to subsidize the education of each in-state student at a public university, with tuition covering about a quarter of the cost.

“By providing some financial assistance to attend an Embry-Riddle or a Stetson or a Bethune-Cookman, I’m creating a higher education opportunity for that student at a far less cost to the state than if they attended a state university,” said Ed Moore, executive director of the Independent Colleges & Universities of Florida.

Lawmakers in the mid-1990s promised to raise the grant gradually to a level of $3,000-a-year per student, Moore said, and in return the private schools agreed to enroll more Florida residents.

The amount of the annual award grew steadily from 1994 to 2000, when the grant was worth $2,813.

But then Florida hit tough budget times. State funding for the grant has stagnated, while enrollment has grown. As a result, each student receives less funding.

“You’re feeding more people off the same pot of money and that’s tough to do,” Moore said.

The Independent Colleges & Universities of Florida group is seeking a $9.4 million increase in funding for next school year. That would increase the amount of the grants to about $2,700.

Gov. Jeb Bush has recommended funding remain at $79.8 million for next school year. But his plan also would eliminate a provision that limited the grant amount to $2,251 this year. That limitation meant only $70.5 million of this year’s appropriation was used.

Depending on the number of residents who enroll at private colleges next fall, each student could receive more money.

Rep. Pat Patterson, R-DeLand, chairman of the Volusia County delegation, said all local legislators support increasing the grant.

“This is a lower investment than we put into the public colleges,” Patterson said.

That support was good news for Volusia County’s three private college.

About 70 percent of Stetson’s 2,070 undergrads, 53 percent of Bethune-Cookman’s 2,584 students and 21 percent of Embry-Riddle’s 4,485 undergrads are from Florida and receive the grant. Annual tuition at B-CC is just over $10,000; the other schools’ tuition costs more than $21,000 a year.

Stetson President Doug Lee said the grant is a deciding factor for many students on whether to attend a private college. Without it, Lee warned, some middle- and lower-income families would have to send their children to public universities and community colleges.

“These programs don’t fund the entire cost of the education, but the combination of all the things that are available to students in scholarships, grants and loans make it possible,” said Bob Jost, vice president-chief business officer at Embry-Riddle. “You get to a point where $500 makes a big difference to a family.”

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