The Senate wants to spend $300,000 on a controversial intellectual freedom survey of higher ed students and faculty that has seen low participation previously.

That line item was one of the projects listed in the Senate’s sprinkle list. The sprinkle list, as its name suggests, is an assortment of supplemental funding initiatives the Legislature compiles as budgeting processes near closure to provide typically small apportionments (compared to other earmarks) to regional projects.

The Senate is proposing spending $150,000 for the survey for Florida’s public university system and another $150,000 for the Florida state college system.

In 2021, lawmakers passed legislation to start doing annual voluntary questionnaires to understand students’ and employees’ viewpoints via the 20-plus question survey. In 2024, the survey doubled to 52 questions.

Some faculty groups protested the surveys and urged professors not to fill them out. 

“Of the more than 1.36 million individuals who received the student survey, 7,213 responded, representing a total response rate of 0.5 percent,” read a 2022 report by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE).

The universities had a better response. A survey emailed to 338,000 students brought in 49,132 responses, or a 14.5% response rate, a 2024 report said.

Some students said they found the questions inappropriate, like when students were asked last year if they would be friends with someone depending on whether they voted for Donald Trump or Joe Biden.

“The fact that they actually named the Presidents — it really rubbed me the wrong way,” said Noah Barguez-Arias, a University of Florida student who called the survey “slimy,” according to a Fresh Take Florida story last year. “I feel like the universities just shouldn’t really worry about that.”

The GOP has targeted higher education and fought back against what Republican lawmakers call “woke” ideology. 

“The two survey instruments were designed to assess the extent to which students and employees feel free to express their beliefs and viewpoints on campus and competing ideas are presented on campus,” FDOE said on its website.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis has approved legislation to help better deliver behavioral health services.

Lawmakers approved the bill (HB 633) in late April. Tampa Republican Rep. Traci Koster sponsored the measure, with Panama City Republican Sen. Jay Trumbull backing the Senate companion (SB 1354).

Under the legislation, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) will contract for operational and financial audits of managing entities and would analyze the data provided.

Audits must include a review of business practices, personnel, financial records, compensation, services administered, the method of provider payment, expenditures, outcomes, referral patterns and referral volume, provider referral assignments, and key performance measures.

Provider network participation information for DCF’s available bed platform, the Opioid Management System, and the Agency for Health Care Administration Event Notification Service are required for audits, as well as information on provider network adequacy.

Melanie Brown Woofter, the President and CEO of the Florida Behavioral Health Association, issued a statement following Friday’s signing praising the Governor and bill sponsors for getting the measure across the finish line.

“The Governor’s unwavering commitment to behavioral health has allowed community mental health and substance use treatment providers to offer efficient and effective health care services to all Floridians, regardless of their ability to pay,” Brown Woofter said.

“We are grateful to Representative Traci Koster and Senator Jay Trumbull for their leadership and to the entire Florida Legislature for unanimously passing HB 633. The legislation centralizes reporting for behavioral health stakeholders, creating a unique opportunity for Floridians to better understand how public investments are supporting mental health services across the state. This will ultimately demonstrate the return on investment community providers generate and continue to highlight the good work providers have been doing in their communities across the state for decades.”

Per the measure, managing entities are required to compare administered services with outcomes of expenditures and add them into each audit of the entity’s expenditures and claims, including any Medicaid funding used for behavioral health services.

Claims paid by each managing entity for Medicaid recipients need to be analyzed and include recommendations to improve the transparency of the system’s performance based on metrics and criteria. Performance standards will be established by both DCF and the managing entities.

Managing entities will be required to report the numbers and percentages of high utilizers, individuals who receive outpatient services for behavioral health services, and emergency room visits.

Information on the number of individuals able to schedule an appointment within 24 hours, wait times, the incidence of medication errors in treatment plans, rate of readmission, and the number of adverse incidents such as self-harm in both in-patient and outpatient settings will also be reported.

Following the Governor’s signature, the legislation takes effect July 1.

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Ryan Nicol and Andrew Powell of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

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The Florida College System’s biggest institution just got a nice funding bump from the Legislature’s lower chamber.

In its just-released “sprinkle list,” the House will allocate $5 million to Miami Dade College (MDC), which reported awarding more than 18,000 credentials, 14,000 diplomas and 12,000 individual issuances of student financial aid in 2024 alone.

The extra, nonrecurring set-aside from the state’s general revenue fund, while surely welcome and useful, is modest compared to the school’s annual budget of $376.5 million. That includes about $205 million from the state’s general fund and Education Enhancement Trust Fund, plus student fees and other revenue streams.

No similar sprinkle list allocation came from the Senate.

The sprinkle list, as its name suggests, is an assortment of supplemental funding initiatives that each chamber of the Legislature compiles as budgeting processes near their end every year.

Items on the list typically provide small apportionments (compared to other earmarks) to regional projects and programs.

The last-minute allocation is 10 times more than MDC got in sprinkles during the process last year.

MDC has the largest undergraduate enrollment of any college or university in the country. Across its eight campuses, the college offers more than 300 educational pathways.

In September, MDC was ranked fourth among top public regional colleges by U.S. News & World Report, which also ranked the school sixth best for veterans, 10th in social mobility and 12th in best value in the South region.

MDC has operated under President Madeline Pumariega since November 2020, when the school’s Board of Trustees selected her over three other finalists.

She succeeded Rolando Montoya, who served in an interim role during a protracted search to find a permanent replacement for longtime President Eduardo Padrón.

In April, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a $4.9 million grant to MDC for an aircraft mechanic training program, which he said would meet a “huge demand in the state.”

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