A Florida House committee on Tuesday approved legislation that would limit the number of out-of-state students enrolled at the state’s public universities.
The Florida House Budget Committee voted to advance CS/HB 1279, a wide-ranging education bill that would require Florida’s preeminent state universities to ensure that at least 95% of each incoming fall class of first-time-in-college undergraduates are Florida residents, calculated on a rolling three-year average.
Universities that fail to meet the requirement would become ineligible for preeminent funding beginning in 2030.
The bill would also cap enrollment of nonresident, non-citizen degree-seeking undergraduates so that no more than 5% may come from any single foreign country. Graduate students would be exempt from the limits.
During committee debate, lawmakers questioned how universities would absorb potential revenue losses tied to reduced out-of-state enrollment, as nonresident students typically pay higher tuition rates.
Bill sponsor Rep. Jennifer Kincart Jonsson told the committee that Florida’s public universities currently enroll about 34,000 out-of-state undergraduates, and that roughly 45% of those students already receive tuition waivers allowing them to pay in-state rates.
Jonsson estimated the revenue shift from converting out-of-state students to in-state tuition would total about $54 million statewide, compared with a combined $17.5 billion budget across Florida’s preeminent universities. She said the largest share of the impact would fall on the University of Florida, followed by Florida State University and the University of South Florida, with smaller impacts at other institutions.
Several lawmakers questioned how public universities would offset reduced tuition revenue associated with lower out-of-state enrollment, noting that nonresident students typically pay higher tuition rates and that the impact could vary significantly by institution.
During the discussion, the bill sponsor said the estimated revenue shift would total approximately $54 million statewide and argued that universities could absorb the change within existing budgets or seek approval to increase nonresident tuition rates under current Board of Governors authority.
Beyond enrollment limits, the bill also revises performance-based funding metrics, places additional private career education programs under state regulatory oversight, removes a state requirement for separate gender equity plans while maintaining federal Title IX compliance, and expands consumer disclosure rules for fee-based services offered to blind and visually impaired Floridians.
Public testimony during the hearing was largely in opposition, though Orange County Public Schools spoke in support. The Florida Dental Association opposed the bill, citing concerns about expanded oversight of professional education programs.
