Free college in Florida

Moving to Florida can be very expensive and can seem financially daunting to a family raising kids and trying to save for college.

But what if most of the college expenses were paid for you?

Florida has a state lottery system that brings in hundreds of millions of dollars. That lottery income is used to fund the Bright Futures program. This is a program that will pay for all or part (depending on GPA) of tuition to a Florida university for one out of every eight school graduates. Some years, the number has been as high as one out of four graduates! It is all based on merit, so, if your child can maintain a 3.0 GPA in high school, do service credits, and score well on the ACT and SAT? They may be eligible for the program if they graduate from a qualifying public or private high school in Florida.

Is the free college worth it? You'll need to consider that the Florida public school system in one of the worse in the nation. But there are excellent private schools. Regardless of public or private they are highly Spanish speaking, which could be a disadvantage for an English-only student.

In other words, there are trade-offs. Decisions like these are never easy. You may be able to solve the financial concern of paying for college by moving to Florida in exchange for several challenging high school years.