Jesse Scheckner
The Florida College System’s biggest institution just got a nice funding bump from the Legislature’s lower chamber.
In its just-released “sprinkle list,” the House will allocate $5 million to Miami Dade College (MDC), which reported awarding more than 18,000 credentials, 14,000 diplomas and 12,000 individual issuances of student financial aid in 2024 alone.
The extra, nonrecurring set-aside from the state’s general revenue fund, while surely welcome and useful, is modest compared to the school’s annual budget of $376.5 million. That includes about $205 million from the state’s general fund and Education Enhancement Trust Fund, plus student fees and other revenue streams.
No similar sprinkle list allocation came from the Senate.
The sprinkle list, as its name suggests, is an assortment of supplemental funding initiatives that each chamber of the Legislature compiles as budgeting processes near their end every year.
Items on the list typically provide small apportionments (compared to other earmarks) to regional projects and programs.
The last-minute allocation is 10 times more than MDC got in sprinkles during the process last year.
MDC has the largest undergraduate enrollment of any college or university in the country. Across its eight campuses, the college offers more than 300 educational pathways.
In September, MDC was ranked fourth among top public regional colleges by U.S. News & World Report, which also ranked the school sixth best for veterans, 10th in social mobility and 12th in best value in the South region.
MDC has operated under President Madeline Pumariega since November 2020, when the school’s Board of Trustees selected her over three other finalists.
She succeeded Rolando Montoya, who served in an interim role during a protracted search to find a permanent replacement for longtime President Eduardo Padrón.
In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a $4.9 million grant to MDC for an aircraft mechanic training program, which he said would meet a “huge demand in the state.”
