JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Close to 300,000 people with student loan debt totaling $7.4 billion will have their debt forgiven, according to an announcement by the Biden Administration on Friday morning.
The announcement came a couple of hours before students at William M. Raines High School learned more about the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program.
The state is hoping more students sign up for the program, instead of leaving free money for their education on the table.
“It’s free money, you’re going to go to school debt-free. Everybody wants to go to school debt-free,” Daveon Ghee, a junior at Raines High School said.
Ghee said he plans to head to UCF to study hospitality management. He was one of many students Friday who sat in on a presentation about the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship.
The program provides scholarships to students based on their academic achievement.
There are two types of Bright Futures scholarships: Florida Academic Scholars and Florida Medallion Scholars.
- Students who receive the Florida Academic will get 100% of their tuition and fees paid for
- Students who receive Florida Medallion will get 75% of their tuition and fees paid for
But the presentation happened on Friday because students aren’t taking advantage of it.
According to the Florida Department of Education, over the past five years, approximately 50,000 eligible students did not apply to receive Bright Futures.
The average cost for a year’s tuition and fees at one of Florida’s public universities is $6,100 a year.
If all of those 50,000 students got FAS, paying for their full tuition for an undergraduate degree, that means they’d each be leaving about $24,400 on the table when it comes to a 4-year-degree.
On top of that, according to the Department of Education, there are about $1.6 trillion of student loans that are owed.
“We feel that all of our students and parents in the community know the opportunity we have here in Florida,” Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. said.
Opportunities Ghee said he and his family plan to take, so he gets a free education when it’s time.
The Commissioner of Education said Bright Futures also helps students pay for degrees at career and technical schools.
To learn more about Florida Bright Futures Scholarships visit this website.