Bright Flight (Missouri scholarship)

Bright Flight is a Missouri merit-based scholarship in the amount of $1750 per annum (formerly $2000 and later $1500) to Missouri's qualifying graduating high school seniors who enroll in a Missouri accredited college or university. From June 2004 to July 2005, 8390 students were enrolled in the Bright Flight program, which totaled over $15 million in state expenditures.

Qualifications and renewal

• To qualify for Bright Flight, a student must be in the top 3% of his or her statewide high school class as determined by normalized tests, the ACT and SAT composite scores. To date, a score of 31 or above on the ACT or an SAT-equivalent score qualifies, but the score needed changes every year. It is not unheard of for a 27 to qualify. A score of 31 will be needed to qualify for the 2008-2009 school year.
• Students must maintain at least a 2.5 GPA in college and full-time student status to renew the scholarship, which can be renewed for up to five years for a maximum compensation of $8,750.
• Students must not be pursuing a degree in theology or divinity.
• Bright Flight students must attend school continuously, they cannot cease attending school unless they worked for a non-profit organization or held a government job/served for the armed services. Academic interruption must not exceed 27 months.

History

Appropriated by the Missouri General Assembly in 1986, students have not seen an increase in awarded monies since Bright Flight's introduction. Many students and higher education officials have observed that tuition expenses at the University of Missouri, for example, were below $2000 in 1987 and thus were fully covered by Bright Flight at its introduction. In 2006, following a period of increases in tuition expenses that easily outpaced inflation, Bright Flight covered only a fraction of the more than $7000 a typical student spent on tuition at the University of Missouri.

Recent developments

On August 12, 2010, state budget cuts reduced the amount from $2000/year to $1500/year.

On November 25, 2013, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon announced at a college preparatory school in Kansas, Missouri that he included a proposal in Missouri's 2015 budget that would offer an option to receive up to $5,000 extra per year if recipients stayed in Missouri after finishing college for the amount of years they received Bright Flight.

External links

• Missouri Senate bill homepage to increase scholarship amount to $4000 annually: **SB 662