Bright Futures is a scholarship program in the state of Florida. It is funded by the Florida Lottery and was first started in 1997. History The Bright Futures Scholarship Program was meant to emulate neighboring state Georgia's HOPE Scholarship. Originally the Program disbursed just above 42,000 scholarships for about $70 million. At the program's peak in 2008, it provided scholarships to 39% of Florida high school graduates, including 94 percent of incoming freshmen and 70 percent of all undergraduates at the University of Florida. The program was solely based on academic merit and not on financial need, and had an "A level" and a "B level", plus a vocational scholarship program that could be used at trade schools. The A level covered 100% of tuition and fees while the B level covered 75%. At its height in 2008, the program was criticized for subsidizing the education of students from wealthy families using lottery proceeds collected largely from lower-income individuals. UF Chief Financial Officer Matt Fajack criticized the program for keeping state university tuition artificially low, since any tuition raise would mean that the state would have to spend more money to cover scholarships under the program. The Florida Legislature enacted cuts to Bright Futures funding in 2011 by increasing the minimum SAT score required to qualify for the program. The changes took full effect for the graduating class of 2014, increasing the minimum score for the "A level", from 1280 to 1290, and increasing the minimum score for the "B level" from 980 to 1170; as well as decreasing the award amount for the "A level" to only cover 50% of tuition and fees and the "B level" to cover 33%, down from 100% and 75% respectively. The cuts disproportionately impacted black and Latino students as well as students from predominantly poor schools. By the 2015–16 school year, the program covered only 20% of Florida high school graduates and paid an average of $2,000 per year. In 2014, the United States Department of Education launched an investigation of the Bright Futures program due to allegations of racial bias against black and Latino students, focusing particularly on its effects on students from Miami–Dade County and at Florida International University. The department ultimately found evidence of disparate impacts on minorities but no evidence of discriminatory intent. 2018 saw a massive overhaul with the scholarship, with the "A level" being renamed to "Florida