Florida Governor Rick Scott, a Republican, will not allow state universities to increase tuition. He vetoed a bill Friday that would have given the University of Florida and Florida State University the power to hike tuition. He’s also not proving the institutions with any more state money, however.
According to a piece by Kim Wilmath in the Miami Herald:
After saying for months he does not believe in tuition increases, Gov. Rick Scott stuck to his word Friday and vetoed a bill that would have allowed unlimited tuition hikes at top Florida universities.
Had Scott signed HB 7129, universities that met 11 of 14 performance-based benchmarks would have been allowed to ask the Florida Board of Governors for hikes beyond a current 15 percent cap. The criteria included high GPAs of incoming freshmen and a high amount of research activity, for example. Only the University of Florida and Florida State University would have qualified.
He said he vetoed the bill because “it is… clear how difficult it is for our students, and in many cases their families, to afford the costs of higher education, I have strong concerns for the debt burdens on our students.”
His “concerns for the debt burdens,” however, do not mean that he plans to give Florida’s state universities any money to offset the costs of higher education. Florida, in fact, has cut the state budget for higher education for the last five years. Scott cut public college’s higher education budget for this year by $300 million.
