Red Tape in the Bush

So the Republicans are firmly in control of Florida government, and that of course means a reduction in silly regulations and paperwork. Ha! As if!

I continue to confuse Republicans with Libertarians. They ain't. If anything, modern Republicans equal more government...

D2, like D1 before her, is a winner of a Bright Futures Scholarship. BFSs were the brainchild of Lawton Chiles, probably the best governor Florida had since Bob Graham. Chiles and his cohorts realized that the best and brightest Florida HS grads were leaving the state for other more prestigious public and private universities, resulting in a brain drain of a state already suffering from a serious lack of brainpower.

So the BFS gave full scholarships to state schools to kids who might have gone to North Carolina, Michigan, Emory, Vanderbilt, Tulane (before Katrina, when people actually wanted to go there), etc...And, if these blue chip high schoolers stayed at Florida private colleges, like my beloved U, the BTS would pay them a scholarship equal to that U Florida cost.

The program was a stunning success. It turned Florida from a lower ranked university to a truly elite one. To get into Florida, in the last 10 years, you essentially needed grades and SAT scores of the level to get a BFS.

It made simple sense. Junior came to his parents and said "Dad, Duke for $40k per year tuition, or Florida for, um FREE." Other than the JAPPiest of Jews or most naive of WASPS (or immigrant parents, who dreamed of sending their kids to places like Georgetown or Notre Dame), the deal was too good to pass up.

In a decade, Florida became an "It" university, and somehow the U vaulted to the US News Top 50 list. Simple math: free tuition was too hard to pass up.

It worked in this house! Even D1, who WOULD have liked the concierge-like services of, say, an Emory, realized it made no sense to pass up the free ride at Florida. And it seemed all her friends were likewise from well off families who could have afforded private or out of state colleges, but realized how silly it was to spend a quater of a million on tuition to drink, hang out, and figure out what grad program to attend.

D2 followed suit, and now reports she can't imagine anyone liking college as much as she does in Gainesville. And, so far, she hasn't become a Gator fan. Oh, how my cup runneth over...

So anyway, back to BFS program...The Republicans have been cutting it. And I can't disagree with that --in many ways, it is "mission accomplished." It is now so competitive to get into Florida (and Miami, and, to a lesser extent, FSU and even UCF and FIU) that the carrot is no longer necessary. And, in this bad economy, Junior wouldn't with a straight face come into the living room with the $40k per year idea, unless he was dumb enough to take out loans and leave himself owing a mortgage payment with no real hope of getting a good job.

So, the Republicans simply did away with BFS beginning with incoming classes next year. Ha again! As if! No --now they require BFS recipients to fill out a financial aid application --an application that discloses all my finances for a scholarship supposedly NOT need based!

Last night, D2 and I spent 20 minutes on the phone getting the stupid app done. I was tempted to tell them to get lost, but if D2 takes 30 credits next year, BFS will pay her $3000.00. Since I already bought a Prepaid Plan, which pays for tuition and fees, the BFS money will pay for most of her sorority house and meals. I'm not rich enough to blow that off.

Ah, Republicans. Florida is in the hands of a governor who truly should be in federal prison for Medicare fraud, and a bunch of senators and legislators more concerned with abortion ultrasounds than they are about real issues that affect us.

Maybe that's a good thing. If they spend all their time on Tea Party and religious right pandering, maybe they'll have less opportunity to enact moronic regulations like requiring financial forms for things supposedly having nothing to do with finances.

Nah. They'll make the time to annoy.