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     Despite a veto by Charlie Crist, Florida college students could be facing a tuition increase next semester. Back in the spring, lawmakers approved a five percent hike that was wiped out by the governor’s veto pen. But the tuition plan could be revived to help deal with a billion dollar budget shortfall.  Chris Casquejo talked with students and school leaders about the financial flip-flop.

Hear it here: Tuition Hikes 

     Students at Florida State University are back in class, hitting the books. But come January, families of those who attend the state’s 11 universities may feel a hit in their checkbooks, as much as 5 percent.
     “I think increasing tuition when we’re already here is completely unfair and that you would have an immense number of dropouts,” said FSU first-year student Laura Been.
     Many students at FSU are on financial aid, but they still will feel the pain of a tuition hike.
     “Financial aid probably won’t change,” said Carl Bellefleur, a first-year student.
     That means he will have to spend more time trying to make money and less time to focus on getting good grades.
     “I need to be focused on one thing, school.  I can’t work and go to school.  It would be too much things on my mind,” Bellefleur said.
     But University of Florida President Bernie Machen says even a tuition hike won’t be enough.
     “We are woefully short of faculty to teach students,” Machen said.
     Governor Charlie Crist hopes universities can wait a year.
     “I’d rather have them not go up.  I had talked to them about waiting until 08,” Crist said.
     But lawmakers may not be able to wait. They have a billion dollar hole in the budget and raising tuition in January would be one small way to help bridge the gap.
     Florida’s universities rank near the bottom in tuition rates nationally.