Tuition cap smart move on Scott’s part

With belts tightening across the country, the prospect of allowing universities across the state to have the option of upping tuition costs by an unlimited amount was too much for Gov. Rick Scott this past April.

Scott used the power of his office to veto H.B. 7129, a move which angered certain Florida universities but relieved many students.

Cutting students’  attendance costs may sound like sound fiscal policy. However, university leaders across the state are concerned. The increase in tuition would allow universities to make up for the monies lost from last year’s $1.3 billion state budget cuts. Not to mention that this will be the fifth year in a row that universities will suffer from a scarce education budget.

This past month, the University of Florida nearly lost its computer science program, due in part to the slashes to the education budget. In fact, FGCU’s own Marieb Hall needed to dodge the governor’s budget ax, with the administration barely scraping together the funds necessary to complete and furnish the building.

In a time when the economy is approaching disaster, education sounds like the most important investment our government can make in its future.

However, wasteful spending across the board has cost the taxpayers billions of dollars, and the governor and his administration have been forced to make some very difficult decisions regarding the budget.

In addition to the tuition decision, the legislature authorized Florida Polytechnic to become our next state university—a risky move indeed. Considering the state can barely afford to subsidize our current universities, the notion of adding another university to our system is may prove costly.

Our legislature usually crafts very sound legislative policy; I don’t understand why our representatives would authorize crushing tuition increases for current students in order to subsidize another university that would simply add one more hungry mouth for our budget to feed.

I praise Gov. Scott’s  decision to help alleviate the costs of tuition for students, although it may force universities to make up the difference in program and class selection cuts. However, I wish the legislature had used more prudence before granting a charter to Florida Polytechnic. Hopefully, the decisions don’t prove counterproductive to sustaining an educated Florida workforce in the future.