State College System Overall Moves Through Senate

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The latest attempt by Tallahassee legislators to change the way Florida’s state colleges are run has cleared a major hurdle on its way to the Senate floor.

The bill, SB 540, cleared the major Senate Education Committee in an 8-2 vote.

A major point of contention among college presidents throughout the state has been the bill’s setting of stricter performance standards for students. The bill will also cap degree-tracts to a maximum of four years.

Addressing the opposition, bill sponsor Sen. Dorothy Hukill, R-Port Orange, said that stricter standards and speedy graduations are “what this program is all about.”

“[It’s] not only getting students into community college,” Hukill said, “but moving them through the community college, getting them into the next level and actually graduating them.”

Florida colleges have performed relatively well compared to colleges in other states, even doing well enough to earn several national accolades. “We can do a heck of a lot better,” Hukill said. Backing up her remarks, the chairwoman of the education panel cited data which showed that a low number (17.7 percent) of students enrolled in two-year associate degree programs several years ago managed to attain baccalaureate degrees within six years.

Of that same pool, 26 percent were still enrolled in associate degree programs after six years with associate degree earners coming in at half that number.

That leaves 43 percent of students who never managed to get a degree before leaving the college system.