Bright Futures bill would punish aspiring young engineers, scientists taking AP courses
A bill under consideration by the Florida Legislature would penalize students who take rigorous Advanced Placement courses in high school to prepare for bachelor’s degree programs in engineering, physics, mathematics and computer science, which are among the best-paid fields in the modern economy.
Senate Bill 86, introduced by state Sen. Dennis Baxley of Ocala, is intended to reduce the cost of the state’s Bright Futures scholarship program. If the bill becomes law, students would be penalized by a provision that would reduce Bright Futures awards to those who pass any Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge or dual enrollment classes while in high school.
High school preparation plays an important role in the success or failure of college students who major in engineering, physics, mathematics and computer science.
The American Society for Engineering Education recommends that high school students considering a college major in engineering take chemistry, physics, precalculus and calculus in high school.
Computer science majors must take many of the same calculus and physics courses in college as engineers and physics majors do, and the chair of the UCF Department of Computer Science told the Sentinel in 2019 that he would like his majors to arrive on campus with a solid high school foundation in physics and calculus. Math majors must take physics in college along with their large dose of math courses, which begin with calculus.
As a physics professor in the FSU Physics Department who teaches students majoring in all of these fields, I know that the first and best high school physics course a student can take to prepare for success in my classroom is Advanced Placement Physics 1. AP Physics 1 cannot replace the college physics courses required for engineering, physics, mathematics and computer science majors, but it is the best high school course on the market for teaching new physics students how to think about applying the laws of nature.
If SB 86 is signed into law as it is now written, students who pass the AP Physics 1 exam in high school will suffer a reduction in the number of college credit hours their Bright Futures scholarships will pay for. The bill would begin penalizing Bright Futures students with AP credits starting in the 2022-23 academic year, so high school juniors taking AP Physics 1 this year would be penalized if they pass the course’s exam in May. This penalty would affect a significant number of Central Florida students: In Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, there were 1,143 students in public high schools taking AP Physics 1 in the fall of 2020.
The most popular calculus class in Florida’s high schools is called AP Calculus AB. Students who pass the exam for this course will have their Bright Futures awards reduced as well. In Lake, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, there were 2,709 public high school students taking AP Calculus AB last fall.
Many of Florida’s schools have embraced an Advanced Placement course called AP Computer Science Principles as a way of inviting a diverse population of students to consider the field of computer science as a career. The course is taught at too low a level to count toward a college degree in computer science — but that is a feature, not a bug.
The level at which the course is taught contributes to a welcoming atmosphere and its broad appeal. Last fall, 2,009 public high school students in Lake, Orange, Osceola
and Seminole Counties were taking AP Computer Science Principles. Many of those are now in 11th grade and below, and all of those students would be penalized if they earn Bright Futures scholarships.
Parents of high school students who are considering college majors in engineering, physics, mathematics or computer science and who are taking — or plan to take — Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge or dual enrollment classes to prepare for college should fire up their laptops and tell their legislators to vote “nay” on SB 86.
In an editorial last week, the Sentinel criticized a different provision in Senate Bill 86 — one that would limit the full four years of Bright Futures support to students who are majoring in a field that
leads “directly to employment.” Under this provision, many arts and humanities majors would likely be limited to two years of Bright Futures support. The Sentinel argued that “Florida has no business telling college students what they ought or ought not study.”
No future Florida college student is safe from the ravages of SB 86. If legislators want to save money on Bright Futures and encourage future college students to consider careers in high-paying fields like engineering, physics, mathematics and computer science, they should set this aside and start over again.