When Florida legislators help fund private universities, it pays off for the state | Opinion
It is budget season in Tallahassee — time for Florida legislators, now in session, to remember that the state makes money when it spends on private higher education, not just on public schools.
State legislative funding supports critical research programs and infrastructure upgrades at private universities. Florida’s financial help is crucial. I know. I am president of one of South Florida’s private universities, St. Thomas in Miami Gardens.
A state legislative penny spent offsetting tuition for those majoring in jobs Florida needs most, such as nursing, is imperative for a prepared workforce.
One financial lifeline for private colleges such as St. Thomas is the Effective Access to Student Education, better known as the EASE grant program, for students attending private, nonprofit colleges and universities.
In the 2022 academic year alone, each state dollar spent on the program generated $3.83 or a 283% return, a group of Tampa economists recently found.
EASE offers a modest $1,750-per-semester tuition grant per student, but it helps fund college degrees that vault members of Florida’s lowest-income families into the middle class.
State investments to improve private colleges help the whole state and even the State University System, which can neither serve every Floridian who wants to attend college nor produce enough graduates in critical fields such as science, technology and engineering.
Today, 30 nonprofit schools in Florida, including St. Thomas, comprise the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida or ICUF. Together, ICUF and the SUS served 510,420 undergraduate and graduate students in Florida in 2022.
ICUF institutions educated nearly one in three Florida college students while addressing critical statewide labor issues such as the Sunshine State’s nursing shortage.
Nursing was the second most popular major at ICUF’s 30 institutions in 2022, behind only business administration. According to the Florida Hospital Association, Florida must hire 11,500 more registered nurses and 5,600 more licensed practical nurses.
The FHA estimates those nurse deficits will grow to 37,400 (a 12% shortage) for RNs and 21,700 LPNs (a 30% shortage) by 2035.The federal government expects the national nursing supply to fall by 6% for RNs (207,980) and 36% for LPNs (302,440). Exacerbating the shortage, research shows that 100,000 RNs left the field from 2020 to 2021 – the steepest decline in 40 years.
Legislative appropriations made directly to individual private Florida universities are another critical financial lifeline. Take just one example in South Florida’s economy.
In 2019, the Florida Legislature provided St. Thomas University with $1 million to support operational enhancements to the university’s nursing program.
STU now projects it will serve 2,000 nursing students by spring 2026, up from a mere 13 students in 2017, and STU’s overall enrollment has rocketed to 7,660 students, a 78% increase from 4,302 students seven years.
More students translate to more money for Florida. With that in mind, the university just announced plans to build a state-of-the-art, 99,000-square-foot nursing and STEM building, while requesting $3.5 million from Florida’s Legislature to jump-start the project.
STU estimates the total capital outlay for our new nursing school building could potentially be worth at least 16 times the university’s requested state investment. Private colleges produce tax-paying workers who commonly earn more than public college graduates in the long term and often stay in Florida. In 2022, for example, ICUF colleges created 321,624 jobs in Florida.
Back in South Florida, a new Florida TaxWatch study of St. Thomas University found its 2023 class will generate 7,519 Florida jobs and $419.6 million in lifetime earnings while paying $80 million in taxes.
St. Thomas is just one university, but its presence directly leads to 1,000 local jobs and $56.4 million in personal income annually.
From small class sizes to flexible scheduling and faith-based values, private colleges offer benefits that state schools cannot always match.
Florida lawmakers should continue to fund private universities because each state legislative penny spent leads to many more dollars earned to help Florida’s future.
David A. Armstrong is president of St. Thomas University, vice chairman of the board of ICUF and a nationally recognized expert speaker on higher education law, trends and Title IX.