Rick Scott Targeting Charlie Crist on Raising Tuition

Gov. Rick Scott plans to take the gloves off on Wednesday at an event in Tampa where he will talk about higher education costs. According to his campaign team, Scott will hit former Gov. Charlie Crist for raising tuition during his term in office. Despite spending most of his political career as a Republican, Crist is the favorite for the Democratic nomination to challenge Scott in November.

Charlie Crist repeatedly raised tuition on Florida families, Scotts team insisted on Wednesday. This year, we are going to right this wrong. We are working to undo Charlie Crists tuition increases and fight to cut tuition for all Florida families.

College shouldnt just be accessible to all it must be affordable for all, the Scott campaign continued. While Gov. Scott is fighting to keep college tuition low and has challenged all state colleges to offer $10,000 degrees to make college more affordable for Florida families, Charlie Crist signed into law an automatic 15 percent annual tuition increase that put college further out of reach for many Floridians.

The Scott team pointed to Crist signing a 5 percent tuition increase in 2007 before raising it 6 percent in 2008 for universities. In 2009, the budget Crist signed allowed universities the option to raise it as much 15 percent.