Inside Higher Ed has a story today on a downside to state merit aid programs intended to keep high-achieving students in the state by subsidizing (well, further subsidizing) their attendance at state universities. A Florida State professor has looked at data regarding Florida’s “Bright Futures” program and found that there has been a significant decrease in the percentage of students in Florida public universities who major in math, science, and engineering since the inception of the program. His explanation is that because eligibility for “Bright Futures” depends on maintaining a high GPA, some students shy away from more difficult majors. Why risk losing all that money because of a C in Chemistry?

Is a decrease in students majoring in these fields worth it to obtain the benefits of such programs — that is, keeping the brightest students from studying in another state and perhaps later moving there? The IHE piece doesn’t go into that, but in my view, it’s extremely doubtful that there are any such benefits. With a highly mobile national and even international labor market, a state simply can’t improve its economy by inducing a few smart kids to study and work there rather than going elsewhere. These programs are just political gimmicks intended to make it appear that politicians are doing something.