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Florida Senate President Ben Albritton Wants to Phase Out ‘Dreamers’ Tuition Break

December 18, 2024 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, suggested phasing out a tuition break for undocumented immigrant students. (Colin Hackley/N
Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, suggested phasing out a tuition break for undocumented immigrant students. (Colin Hackley/NSF)

Senate President Ben Albritton on Monday suggested phasing out a decade-old law that allows some undocumented immigrant students, known as “dreamers,” to receive in-state tuition rates at Florida universities and colleges.

Albritton addressed the issue during a media availability, after Sen. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, this month filed a bill (SB 90) that would repeal the law. Albritton suggested a gradual approach that would take into account students who already receive the tuition benefit or who are making plans to attend colleges or universities at the cheaper in-state rates.




While he did not propose a timeline for phasing out the law, Albritton suggested putting a “sunset” on it — a legislative term that usually involves setting a future date to end a law or program.

“If you’re not going to have access to it at some point, whatever that number of months or years may be … you won’t plan on it,” Albritton, R-Wauchula, said. “If you and your family have built the idea of going to college around this, and you built your budget around it, a sunset would make sense to me.”

Lawmakers and then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2014 approved the law, which allows undocumented immigrant students to avoid higher out-of-state tuition rates if they meet certain criteria. The students need to have attended a secondary school in Florida for three consecutive years immediately before graduating from high school and must apply to a college or university within two years of graduation.

Fine, who is running in a special election for a congressional seat, filed his repeal bill Dec. 6, contending Florida is offering a “better deal” to undocumented immigrants than to students from other parts of the U.S.




“Someone from Georgia, who wants to go to one of our public universities, is going to pay three times as much as an illegal immigrant who shouldn’t even be in America,” Fine said on Monday.

When he filed the bill, Fine estimated the repeal would cut about $45 million subsidy for undocumented students.

A 2023 report by the American Immigration Council and the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration estimated that in 2021 about 40,000 undocumented students attended Florida colleges and universities.

“We should not be asking Floridians, who are struggling to make ends meet to pay their insurance bills and their grocery bills, to cough up $45 million for illegal immigrants,” Fine said Monday. “It’s just wrong.”

Fine filed the bill as he runs in a special election to replace U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., in Congressional District 6. Waltz is leaving office next month to become President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser.

The special primary election in the Republican-leaning district, which covers all or parts of Flagler, Lake, Marion, Putnam, St. Johns and Volusia counties, will be held Jan. 28. The special general election is April 1. Fine, who has the backing of Trump in the race, will exit the Senate on March 31 to meet the state’s resign-to-run law.

Florida’s 60-day legislative session will start March 4.

When the 2014 law was approved, Albritton was one of 32 House members who voted against the measure. Albritton was elected to the Senate in 2018 and became president last month.




“I believe that citizenship matters,” Albritton said Monday. “It should matter. It is what this country was founded on.”

Differences between what students pay for in-state and out-of-state tuition can be large.

At Florida State University, the difference ranges from $6,517 for in-state tuition to $21,683 for other students. At the University of Florida, in-state tuition is $6,381 compared to $28,658 for out-of-state students.

The 2014 law was passed by a 26-13 vote in the Republican-controlled Senate and 84-32 in the House. It was a priority of then-House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and was sponsored by then- Rep. Jeanette Nunez, a Miami Republican who is now lieutenant governor.

–Jim Turner, News Service of Florida

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Merrill Shapiro says

    December 18, 2024 at 2:58 pm

    Is it fair to assume that Albritton and Fine feel that we would be better off having ignorant uneducated Dreamers in our community rather than well-educated Dreamers?

    2
  2. Kat says

    December 18, 2024 at 3:53 pm

    Dreamers are children, how horrible to refer to them as basically “less than” any other child based on the actions of their parents. Where is the American dream for these children? America was founded by people looking to improve their situation in life, but yet we look down upon these people for doing exactly the same thing.

    2
  3. Pogo says

    December 18, 2024 at 4:43 pm

    @FWIW

    This is a stalking horse to normalize the term sunsetting as a euphemism for theft and murder.

    Welcome to Jonestown on a national scale.

    Yabba Dabba Doo…
    https://rescueamerica.com/

    2
  4. Deborah Coffey says

    December 19, 2024 at 8:29 am

    What is the best method to stop the haters and bigots from enacting their cruel deeds? Do we need a miracle…because I am becoming a hater of the haters…which makes me…what?

    1
  5. Pogo says

    December 19, 2024 at 11:46 am

    @DC

    “What is…?”

    In a word — honesty.

    FWIW, the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.

  6. Jim says

    December 19, 2024 at 7:28 pm

    Why “phase it out”? If it’s “bad”, cut it immediately. If you’re thinking of phasing it out, then you must think there is actual merit to the program but it’s not popular with the MAGA crowd so it’s got to go. Don’t worry about the dreamers. I think most of them have pretty well concluded that there is no reason to “dream” in this country. If you aren’t born and raised here (Opps, I mean born to American citizens!), then you need to get your butt out of this country! We don’t want you here. (We don’t know why we don’t want you here but that’s not the point. All we know is once we get all you out of here, all our problems will be solved – until we come up with the next group that needs to be singled out and attacked.)
    We’re a country of hate right now. And we’re going to get a lot worse!

    2

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