Miami Herald columnist Fred Grimm recently penned one of the most plain-spoken, piercing critiques of the new "differential tuition" plan, to date:Increasing taxes might seem the most obvious strategy for raising Florida's education system to a less disgraceful status. Floridians, after all, only pay an average of 7.4 percent of their income in state and local taxes -- 47th in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation.
Not a chance. The fellows in Tallahassee won't even talk about raising taxes. Certainly not for education. (They've reduced Florida's ranking among the states and the District of Columbia in K-through-12 per-student funding to 50th in the nation.)
But they'll happily go along with the governor to jack up Michael Terry's college tuition 15 percent. ''A lot of people here are already on financial aid,'' said Terry, 18, a Florida Atlantic University freshman.
Just a few months ago, [Gov. Charlie Crist] vetoed an across-the-board tuition hike. Students might remember his empathetic words. ''Students and their families are already suffering under high property taxes, high insurance rates and high gas prices. I feel for them,'' the governor said. ``They don't need higher tuition too -- not now.''
But the students know...that the extra tuition money about to be exacted from their piddling bank accounts won't go toward improving higher education. It'll only provide a rationale for more cuts in state college funding.
Continue reading here.
Lawson, Graham flag hazards of differential plan
Crist plans to extend state scholarship-exempt differential to FAMU