There are more than a million students in Florida’s 28 state and community colleges. The system has experienced rapid growth in the past few years as public universities froze enrollment and cut budgets. The college system has been the cheaper alternative to a university but college officials say it’s time the state gave them more money.
Officials with the Florida's state college system say they'll ask for a 35 percent increase in state funding. Valencia College President Sandy Shugart says although Florida’s overall tuition rates have been climbing, the state’s community and state colleges are a lot less expensive than their larger university counterparts.
"There are still many in the state, in other sectors of higher education, who believe that it's under-priced and that, at least in their sector, they need to continue to have aggressive tuition increases. We've reached a point – I think, a tipping point – in our system where we'd like to say, 'We need to restrain the growth in tuition.'’
Tuition rates have grown over the last few years as the state scaled back its contribution for higher education. But this year, there’s been a lot of pushback toward tuition hikes—from students and state officials, including Governor Rick Scott.
"I think that we need to provide more funding. If we're not going to do the tuition increase, it's got to come from somewhere," said Board Member Roberto Martinez. Martinez says the bottom line is that college needs more money.
But that funding can come from many different sources, and other board members like John Padget say they want to see the state bring back the matching grant program for the schools.
“I made a contribution that has not been matched. It was a promise that we match, and its not being done. I don’t know what the appetite in the legislature is for this, but I believe we would be remiss if we didn’t continue to emphasize that," Padget said donations from private donors are down, causing even more problems for cash-strapped institutions.
The state board of education oversees K-12 public schools, community and state colleges. State economists say revenue projections are coming in higher than expected and if that continues, it could mean an ease to years of budget cutbacks. The state board is already planning its wish-list for the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
