Should I seek a Bright Futures Scholarship?
It’s one of the first questions a Florida high school student asks when thoughts head toward college. And while there are three different forms of these scholarships—academic, medal, and professional gold stamp—every Florida citizen knows the two magic words that open the search for top scholarships:
Bright futures. Bright futures. Bright futures.
To his great credit, Rep. James Bush He wants to bring similar elegance and simplicity to the K-12 scholarship search process in Florida. The Miami Democratic Party recently introduced a measure that would organize all K-12 school-choice scholarships in Florida under a single banner named after Florida’s legendary teacher: Mary MacLeod Bethune.
If Bush is on his way, Florida families looking to take advantage of the Sunshine State’s myriad scholarship options won’t first need a Ph.D. In naming the education program.
They’ll only need to know one word to get started: Bethune. Python. Python.
From there, the details of eligibility for the various K-12 scholarships will become relevant (just as they are at the higher education level). But the ease of getting into the scholarship search process is likely to make it easier for parents to use school choice programs. Elevating Python’s name would surely accomplish Bush’s primary goal in initiating this legislation – to honor the great Florida man whose story needs to be better told.
Naming the Florida K-12 Scholarships for Python would be a fitting tribute to a Daytona Beach teacher who initially served a group of students very similar to Florida’s First School Choice Scholarship recipients. This undoubtedly explains why there is a group of young adult scholarship students from kindergarten through the end of secondary education, led by Denisha Meriwether From Black Minds Matter is organizing a campaign on social media to promote the idea of bringing all K-12 scholarships under the Bethune umbrella.
One of these previous recipients, HERA Pharma, attended Tampa Catholic High School with a K-12 scholarship before graduating from Florida A&M University. She says, “This Rattler is behind the 100% Bethune Scholarship idea!”
Past scholarship recipients aren’t the only ones interested in honoring Python. Bush says he expects broad bipartisan support in the legislature for his proposal. It is hard to imagine Gov. Ron DeSantis He refused such a measure, especially as he owed his 2018 election to a group of 100,000 African-American “school choice mothers” who voted for him over the Democrat Andrew Gillum.
The timing of the Bush initiative seems perfect. It is intended that the adoption of this measure coincides with the unveiling of the new Python statue in the US Capitol next spring. He hopes the endorsement of this initiative will serve as a reminder that, even in our divided age, all Floridians can agree that Mary MacLeod Bethune is worthy of the honor.
So three cheers for Bush and his timely initiative. Let’s hope his colleagues in the House and Senate quickly approve this effort to honor the woman who founded the private seminary that became Python Cockman University.
Then, the K-12 scholarship search process will begin with the elegance and simplicity of the top scholarship search process: “Shouldn’t we seek a Python scholarship for our children?”
And Florida residents everywhere will have another reason to remember the name of our state’s greatest teacher: Python. Python. Python!
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William Mattox He is director of the J. Stanley Marshall Center for Educational Options at the James Madison Institute. JMI founder Dr. Marshall was a longtime member of the Board of Trustees at Bethune-Cookman University.
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