Scott “Extremely Disappointed” With Senate
April 22nd, 2014 by flanewsIt looks bleak for supporters of a bill providing in-state tuition to undocumented students, but students and state leaders aren’t ready to call the proposal dead yet.
Florida International University Student Julio Calderon says he doesn’t know if he can continue to afford school. His shirt reading “undocumented” says it all.
“I really need this bill to pass because it would allow me to continue my education,” said Calderon, an undocumented student from Honduras.
A bill that would help thousands of students like Calderon by providing in-state tuition to undocumented kids is being blocked in the Senate., even though the Governor has thrown his full support behind it.
“College is expensive, we need to do everything we can to reduce the cost of tuition for all of our students, this is a wrong we need to correct,” said Gov. Rick Scott (R-Florida).
Students sat outside the Senate President’s office for the second straight day trying to put pressure on him to allow the Senate to hear the bill.
The Senate President bashed the proposal last week. Juan Escalante, who met with the Governor on Tuesday, says helping thousands of students out just makes sense for Florida.
“Bottom line is that this is an investment that the state of Florida has made on us and all we want is an education so that we continue to grow our state,” said Escalante from outside the Senate President’s office.
The legislation also caps tuition hikes. It brings it down from 15 percent to 6 percent tuition increases. Senator John Thrasher says that even though it’s not being heard on its own, the bill can still make it through the process.
The Senate Appropriations Committee didn’t allow that to happen late Tuesday, however. Governor Scott called reporters to his office to express his disappointment.
“I believe this will get to the floor. I’m disappointed in what happened in appropriations today, but I’m optimistic,” he said.
His re-election chairman Sen. John Thrasher (R-St. Augustine) blocked an amendment that would have pushed the legislation through even though he supports the bill. Thasher remains optimistic.
“I’m not going to make predictions but there’s a good possibility it can still get to the floor, absolutely,” said Sen. Thrasher.
It would take a two-thirds vote from the Senate to resurrect the bill and get it to the floor. Supporters say they have hope until session is officially declared over.
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