Published: March 8, 2006
Florida senator Lee Constantine (R – Altamonte Springs) has submitted his “excess credit hours” bill again. The bill proposes to charge students 75 percent more than in-state tuition per credit hour after taking more than 120 percent of credits required by their institution to graduate.
At PJC, this would mean students who have more than 12 “excess” credit hours would have to pay $109.11 per credit as opposed to the normal $62.35; that’s $327.33 for every three-credit class.
The bill was originally submitted in the spring 2005 session of the Florida House of Representatives, and passed. However, Governor Jeb Bush vetoed the bill. We college students were able to live in peace with the knowledge that our state government isn’t going to try to limit the amount we learn.
We were very, very wrong. It appears that certain members in the government are attempting to limit our consumption of knowledge.
And then, the current political administration says education is their first priority. It seems that what they’re saying and what they’re doing are two distinctly different things.
If education is their first priority, wouldn’t it make sense for our state government to make college less expensive for students? Instead, they pass bills like the excess credit hours bill and decide to increase university tuition by 5 percent, which make an education more expensive for students.
It seems logical than an increase (or two) in tuition prices would make people less inclined to attend college. Yes, yes education is their first priority, this makes sense now.
