Budget conference: Senate and House $80M apart on higher ed preeminence funding

The House and the Senate are $80 million apart on a program giving extra money to Florida’s preeminent state universities.

The state gives additional funding to its top schools based on how they score on certain metrics , such as graduation rates and faculty’s credentials or its endowment size.

Last year, only four schools were deemed preeminent: the University of Florida, Florida State University, University of South Florida and Florida International University.

The Senate proposes funding the preeminence program with $80 million, while the House wants to provide no funding at all.

And the House and Senate are still split on whether to give Florida Polytechnic University funding to double in size to 3,000 students by 2030. The House, which initially proposed $10.7 millio