Education funding vetoes hit Southwest Florida, including in Bill Galvano’s district

Colleges serving Senate President Bill Galvano’s Senate district seemed to fare well this Session. Then Gov. Ron DeSantis’s veto list — and an economically crippling public health crisis — came along.

State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota suffered multiple blows from DeSantis’ veto pen Monday.

DeSantis nixed $5 million for a new Parrish Center. He also cut $3.81 million for a nursing center and $410,000 directed to Manatee Educational Television based at the school.

The Cross College Alliance, which serves SCF, Ringling College of Art & Design, New College of Florida and University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee, took a hit for the second year in a row, this time from DeSantis killing $897,500 from the budget.

New College of Florida, spared from consolidation based on Galvano’s intervention, still lost out on quite a bit of funding. A $1.22 million spending item for a Master in Data Science and Analytics program got the ax, as did a $275,000 career and internship program.

DeSantis also wiped away $1,375,000 set aside for Manatee Technical College’s new aviation program.

But education in the region as a whole took hefty blows. DeSantis withheld support for a Summer Learning program in Sarasota County ($800,000.)

The YDash Program ($245,142) and the STEM Career Pathways Pilot program ($550,000) also fell to the veto pen, as did a $1.5 million STEM Education initiative based at Mote Marine Laboratory. A $200,000 abstinence program in Collier County schools also succumbed.

Spending directed to particular campuses across Florida suffered scrutiny as DeSantis slashed a record $1.66 billion from the state budget. That included a number of spending efforts the Governor supported ahead of session.

With a coronavirus crisis threatening state revenues and slicing into reserves, which Galvano outlined in a memo last week, the cuts from the Governor’s Office were especially aggressive.

The Governor did prioritize raising teacher salaries and increasing state worker pay.