Sarah Mueller
There could be less taxpayer funding for Florida students to use to attend private schools if a bill in the 2020 Legislative Session continues its momentum.
Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Randy Fine is proposing cutting $66.5 million from the Effective Access To Student Education grant program, or EASE. House leadership calls it “reprioritization.” House Speaker Jose Oliva has asked chairs of committees to reprioritize base budget funding.
Oliva said the purpose of the reprioritization exercise is to identify savings.
Oliva gave the committee a goal of cutting nearly $300 million from the higher education budget. Fine said committee members found more than $371 million they could potentially “reprioritize,” with $144.6 million in recurring funds and $226.7 in non-recurring funds.
The grant was formerly known as the Florida Resident Access Grant. It’s not needs-based, so anyone can get it as long as students meet state residency, citizenship and academic requirements.
EASE is for undergraduates enrolled in at least 12 credit hours who earn a minimum 2.0 G.P.A.
Fine said that reprioritization is not the budget. But he also argues the only standards for getting money from the EASE program is being alive, being admitted to a school, being a Florida resident and being willing to go to school part-time.
“It’s a standardless program,” he said. “You can’t get free money to go to a public college or university unless you get financial aid.”
The last fiscal year’s budget for EASE was nearly $114 million and served about 41,000 students. The award amount for the 2019-2020 academic year was $2,841.
Also included in the $66.5 million cut is a reduction in funding in the Access to Better Learning and Education Grant program, or ABLE. Lawmakers appropriated nearly $5 million to that program last year to serve about 1,700 students going to private institutions.
Fine also wants to redefine full-time as 15 credit hours of class, up from 12 hours.
Advocates for these grant programs maintain the cost for them are cheaper than sending the students to a traditional state university.
Oliva said there also will be proposals for changing the criteria for those scholarships in the coming days.
“We can’t just keep throwing money at things,” he said.
But he also opened the door to perhaps keeping some the grant funding that was eyed for “reprioritization.”
“We’re at the very beginning of Session,” he said. “Rubbing is racing. So at the beginning of Session, all things look one way and we’ll see how they look at the end.”
