Undocumented students with deep Florida roots were stunned and dismayed last week when Senate appropriations chairman Joe Negron refused to take up in-state tuition in his committee. That would have killed it except for parliamentary maneuvers that unexpectedly brought it back to the full Senate.
Republican co-sponsor John Legg said the new amendment makes one thing clear: undocumented students who qualify for the Florida resident tuition break at state universities will not change the required ratio of resident to non-resident students. And that means..."No in state student will be bumped because of this bill", Legg said.
Senators also agreed that undocumented students would only have to spend three consecutive years in a Florida high school to qualify, instead of the previous four. With those and other technical changes in place, the Senate approved the bill by a vote of 27-to-10, suggesting that the votes will be there for final passage once the House signs off on the changes. And Francesca Menes - policy director for the Miami-based Florida Immigrant Coalition - is not expecting a problem.
"With Weatherford being the speaker and this being his primary issue we expect that the house will accept the bill", said Menes.
Schedules are tight in this final week of the legislative session. Most expect the bill to be back in the Senate for final passage on Friday. According to his office, Governor Rick Scott is likely to sign it.