TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida state colleges face more than $50 million in budget cuts proposed by state lawmakers in the House and Senate.
College presidents estimate tens of thousands of students statewide could be affected.
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“It just wouldn't set people up well and people might get overwhelmed,” said Dr. Cynthia Bioteau, president of Florida State College at Jacksonville. “And a lot of people do use the tutoring resources that are here at TCC.”
The cuts could reduce the number and quality of remedial education services such as tutoring -- a service some students need to succeed.
“It's not that the services will go away,” said Delaney Stoner, a student at Tallahassee Community College. “They just won't be as readily available, and in fact, they will be group services as opposed to individual services.”
The reason the colleges need so much in order to catch up incoming students academically is because many of those students are coming back to class after spending years working.
“It's important to be able to provide that hope and reach out to these people and tell them we can help them get up to speed, so they can compete and perform at the college level,” said Dr. Carol F. Probstfeld, president at State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota.
Some state colleges are facing the reality that they might have to make cuts to their top programs.
“The ones that put folks right to work, the ones where we have 100 percent job placement -- those are the ones that are going to be impacted,” said Dr. Ava L. Parker, president at Palm Beach State College.
As it stands now, community colleges service three times as many students as universities in the state and have only a quarter of the amount of funding.
“It's obvious that the Florida college system is the backbone of our education and training in the state of Florida,” said Dr. Ed Meadows, president at Pensacola State College.
If these cuts become law, college presidents worry it will be Florida’s workforce that will pay the ultimate price.
The most severe budget cuts would result in a 5 percent total reduction in funding for state colleges.