{"id":176745,"date":"2026-03-03T20:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176745\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T20:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T20:14:15","slug":"florida-house-passes-bill-to-cap-number-of-international-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/176745\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida House passes bill to cap number of international students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Republican lawmakers in the Florida House decided to sharply cap international student<\/a> enrollment at the state\u2019s public universities, threatening millions in research funding for campuses that fail to comply.<\/p>\n

But legislation to do so (HB 1279<\/a>) now heads to the state’s Senate, where a similar bill has yet\u00a0to be heard\u00a0in\u00a0any committee,\u00a0suggesting the Senate \u2013 though also GOP-controlled \u2013 has no appetite for the proposal.<\/p>\n

And since identical measures must be passed by both chambers for a bill to be sent to the governor, the initiative is likely dead for the 2026 legislative session.<\/p>\n

The House of Representatives on March 3 approved its sweeping \u201cFlorida First\u201d higher education bill, sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Kincart Jonsson, that would limit non\u2013U.S. citizens to 5% of fall enrollment at Florida\u2019s designated preeminent research universities and cap students from any single foreign country at 5% at other state colleges and universities.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida universities should serve Florida students first. Doing so strengthens our system,\u00a0protect\u00a0our standards and keeps opportunity rooted right here. This is Florida first, plain and simple,\u201d Jonsson said in debate before the chamber OK’d the measure 84\u201325.<\/p>\n

The move\u00a0targeting\u00a0non-U.S. citizens at state schools\u00a0comes as Florida continues to position itself as a\u00a0leader in support of President Donald J. Trump’s immigration enforcement push. The state spent an estimated $500 million last year to arrest\u00a0nearly 20,000\u00a0allegedly undocumented\u00a0immigrants and\u00a0has asked all 67 county sheriffs\u00a0to assist\u00a0with federal immigration enforcement.<\/p>\n

The proposal\u00a0emerged\u00a0a year after the state university system\u2019s Board of Governors voted to increase student fees for out-of-state students.\u00a0Despite the inflated price,\u00a0according to Bestcolleges.com, Florida\u2019s out-of-state tuition<\/a> is 28% lower than the national average.<\/p>\n

Universities could have been punished by loss of funding<\/p>\n

Under the House bill, the state’s preeminent universities risk losing an annual $25 million allocation to fund research and hire top faculty for\u00a0failing to comply.<\/p>\n

The University of Florida, Florida State University, University of South Florida, and Florida International University are\u00a0designated\u00a0as preeminent state research universities; the University of Central Florida is expected to be certified by the Board of Governors\u00a0as a preeminent state research university later\u00a0this year.<\/p>\n

These\u00a0schools are the state\u2019s most popular and currently have enrollments\u00a0above Jonsson\u2019s threshold, with FSU and UF having\u00a015% and 20% of this year\u2019s\u00a0freshmen\u00a0classes being\u00a0international students, according to a WUSF analysis.\u00a0<\/a>The\u00a0State University System\u00a0Board of Governors reports<\/a> the average out-of-state enrollment at Florida 12 public universities is 22%. And according to the Florida Department of Education<\/a> non-residents pay about three-and-a-half times more for tuition, or about $18,000 more than residents do.<\/p>\n

\"Rep.<\/p>\n

Rep. Gallop Franklin presented as the keynote speaker for the Leon County Annual MLK Day Celebration at the Leon County Courthouse on Wednesday, Jan. 14. 2026.<\/p>\n

Opponents argue higher education policy is short-sighted<\/p>\n

\u201cI do believe in\u00a0merit.\u00a0I also believe that we should take care of Florida students first, but only when they are exactly the same profile as out-of-state students,” Rep. Gallop Franklin, D-Tallahassee,\u00a0said.\u00a0“It\u2019s\u00a0important that we ensure that the highest quality students come here, get a quality education, and start companies here that boost our economy here in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

But supporters countered Franklin\u2019s argument by saying Florida schools should prioritize Florida students.\u00a0That\u2019s\u00a0the mission the Legislature gives them \u2013 and why\u00a0taxpayers\u00a0provide\u00a0them\u00a0money.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you are growing up in this state, you expect the state to serve you. No student in Florida should be losing a seat from a kid in Georgia, whether\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0the state of Georgia, or the nation of Georgia,” said Rep. Berny Jacques, R-Seminole.<\/p>\n

Jacques and others argued\u00a0that Jonsson’s bill\u00a0ensures that state money is not \u201csubsidizing\u201d the education of\u00a0non-residents.\u00a0The measure also requires students be a U.S. citizen to receive state financial aid. <\/p>\n

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at\u00a0jcall@tallahassee.com<\/a>. Follow on him X: @CallTallahassee.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida House passes bill to cap number of international students<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Republican lawmakers in the Florida House decided to sharply cap international student enrollment at the state\u2019s public universities,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":176746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,83500,30,9129,29,66422,36256,43839,26260,83499,12182],"class_list":{"0":"post-176745","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-first","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-house","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-florida-students","14":"tag-international-student","15":"tag-jennifer-kincart-jonsson","16":"tag-public-universities","17":"tag-research-universities","18":"tag-state-university-system"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=176745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/176746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=176745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=176745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=176745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}