Since being notified that their annual scholarship for the 2020-2021 school year would be reduced by $1,200, Bright Flight Scholarship recipients at MU are now receiving more money than originally anticipated for the spring 2021 semester, according to Leroy Wade, deputy commissioner of the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.
Recipients received $1,500 per semester in the 2019-2020 school year, totaling $3,000 for the year. In the fall 2020 semester, students received $900. The spring semester award totals $1,500, $600 more than the fall.
The reason for the initial cuts has to do with state government funding.
“The legislature reduced the actual appropriation to the program as part of the legislative process by approximately $3.5 million,” Wade said. “In July, the governor announced some restrictions across state government, it wasn’t just the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development. But one of the restrictions in our area was approximately a $6.5 million restriction of the funding for the Bright Flight Program.”
Governor Mike Parson released some of those funds in October, as well as earlier this month, allowing MDHEWD to restore the spring semester award to $1,500.
According to the department’s website, the scholarship is awarded to Missouri residents who have a composite score on the ACT or SAT in the top three percent of Missouri students taking those tests or the top fourth or fifth percentiles of Missouri students taking those tests. The award is given to recipients for up to 10 semesters or until they complete their bachelor’s degree.
While the award amount has decreased for the school year, Wade said the total number of recipients seems to have slightly increased from last year.
“It is important to keep in mind that there are still a lot of unknowns so the final number (of recipients) could go either way but, at this point in time, it appears we will be at least steady with last year,” Wade said.
For MU students and recipients of the award, Melina Psihountas and Donovon Moore, the news of the original reduction to the award came as a surprise. Recipients received an email July 22 from MU’s Office of Student Financial Aid stating that the award amount would be reduced for the school year.
“If someone was relying on it a lot for school money, that doesn’t give you a lot of time to find a summer job, especially during a pandemic,” Psihountas said. “They didn’t provide any point of contact, someone you could email with questions. The email basically was like, ‘Good luck.’”
Moore didn’t realize the reduction until he got the bill for the semester. While he would have liked to receive the full $1,500, he understood why it had been reduced.
“For like a second I was confused,” Moore said. “But then I thought it kind of made sense considering the pandemic has cost them a lot of money.”
The smaller award amount didn’t drastically affect Moore’s or Psihountas’ year.
“I definitely had to sit down with my family and talk about it,” Psihountas said. “I’ve always worked a lot during college. My parents have always raised me to work and save a lot. I’m very fortunate that I’m able to make ends meet.”
Since last semester, Moore has been monitoring news of the scholarship more closely and knew about the increase for the spring semester. Psihountas said she hasn’t received any information about it.
Both Psihountas and Moore are happy about the recent raise to the amount of the award.
“I mean it’s definitely helpful, the extra money,” Moore said. “It’s good news for me, I’d say. Hopefully, it means the state has more money and so that’s good for them.”
_Edited by Sophie Chappell | schappell@themaneater.com _
