Boost, don’t cut, education grants that help women, vets, minorities in Florida | Opinion

Politicians sometimes take three steps forward and, unintentionally, five steps back. Unfortunately, that is what some of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ education policymakers are doing.

At a time when DeSantis is actively promoting his workforce initiative, a program designed to produce educated, qualified workers and more opportunities for employment in Florida, education committee officials are floating the idea to drastically cut funding — Effective Access to Student Education (EASE) grants — to students who hope to attend a private college or university.

Why are some of the governor’s allies undermining his efforts by reducing grant money to college students? Such actions remind us of the grossly inefficient push-me-pull-you politics of Washington, D.C.

Florida’s private college and university graduates are consistently filling Florida’s workforce shortage in nursing and other areas of healthcare, engineering, technology and environmental science. Last year, however, state grant funds available for students were cut by $22 million, or almost 20 percent. Now some of the governor’s advisors are asking for a 60 percent cut in financial assistance to private college students, including low- and moderate-income students.

The result would mean more than 40,000 students, including women, minorities and veterans who hope to earn a college degree and a better quality of life, would likely be denied the education they need. Some on the governor’s team have even suggested that most of the students benefiting from the “Effective Access To Student Education” (EASE) grant program come from wealthy households and therefore don’t need the financial aid.

Nothing could be further from the truth. These students represent a major cross-section of Florida’s lower- to moderate-income households as approximately half of the students receive Pell Grants and almost all of them receive financial aid.

Furthermore, almost half of Florida’s independent college graduates are minorities. Fourteen out of 30 of these private colleges are minority-serving, including three designated as historically black colleges. Five schools are designated as Hispanic-serving.

And — for less state funding than 3 percent of the state’s higher-education budget —private, independent colleges and universities produce more than 30 percent of the state’s bachelor’s degrees, 40 percent of Florida’s master’s degrees and 45 percent of all professional degrees.

Many of the independent colleges in Florida are older than the state university system, with more than 40,000 skilled students graduating from Florida’s private colleges every year. Some legislators also claim, though, that the EASE grant program is “standardless” and available to anyone “alive.”

That not only is insulting to veterans, women and minority students, it’s simply not true. Students must maintain a minimum 2.0-grade-point average and attend class full time, that’s at least 12 credit hours, to receive grant funding. EASE grants go directly to Florida students, and the program has produced tens of thousands of graduates for more than 40 years.

The EASE program also saves taxpayers money compared to financial-assistance grants offered to students attending traditional, state-supported public colleges. Want to go to the University of Florida? The state will give you up to $16,000 in tuition assistance. EASE grants currently are $2,800 a student, and this should be increased.

It is curious why the only grant program for college tuition assistance facing budget cuts is the one program offering help to students attending private colleges and universities.

Not only is gutting financial assistance for single mothers, veterans and minority students a bad idea, it will drastically reduce education and employment opportunities for Floridians at a time when the state and the rest of the nation is facing a shortage of skilled workers in many critical sectors of the workforce.

Florida House Appropriations Subcommittee members are suggesting they want to maintain funding for the EASE program at last year’s levels — $2,481 a student. But House and Senate leaders should call for grant funding to be restored to the original levels of $3,500 a student. This small, per-student investment pays Florida’s economy huge dividends when people become gainfully employed.

Teri Christoph is the host of the Smart Girl Politics podcast.