The movement to cut government waste is gaining traction.
Higher education is in its crosshairs.
And woke Florida colleges are scared as hell after one major fight with DOGE.
Florida’s DOGE goes after colleges and universities
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and his work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has inspired a movement.
All over the country, state-level DOGE efforts are starting to follow his lead on tackling waste, fraud, and abuse in government.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced the creation of a DOGE task force to cut spending and eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy.
The state’s colleges and universities are at the top of the list for DeSantis.
“This is the DOGE-ing of our state university system, and I think it’s going to be good for taxpayers, and it’s ultimately going to be good for students as well,” DeSantis said.
Lawmakers in the Florida Legislature begin probing spending at colleges and universities during their first day of the session.
Former University of Florida president Ben Sasse, a Never-Trump RINO former U.S. Senator from Nebraska, is being investigated for spending millions of dollars on questionable expenses.
Florida House Speaker Danny Perez (R-Miami) predicted that wasteful spending would be found in the state’s higher educational system.
“There are expenses, wasteful spending, that I am sure happen at the universities the same way that they do in any of our agencies, or any other bucket of government that we’ve been funding for the last several decades,” Perez said. “It’s our job to look into that.”
The State University System of Florida has a budget of $19.6 billion, which makes it ripe for potential waste, fraud, and abuse.
RINO former Florida president is under the microscope
Perez vowed the State House would function as the “public’s watchdog” to “hold officials accountable for abusing their power.”
The House Higher Education Budget Subcommittee examined $6.4 million that Sasse paid in consulting fees when he was Florida’s president.
Florida’s Auditor General found that “university records did not demonstrate the benefit” of the consulting fees and their poor oversight to prevent favoritism in awarding the contracts.
Sasse resigned as the president of the University of Florida last July, citing his wife’s health after a little over a year on the job.
The student newspaper uncovered that he had alarming spending habits on the university’s dime, like dropping $901,700 on catering and $210,600 on furniture and equipment rental for the 2023-24 school year.
Sasse is still being paid $949,000 from a mix of public and private sources after leaving the job.
State Representatives were alarmed at what the Florida Auditor General uncovered.
“I feel like a lot of us want some accountability,” State Representative Judson Sapp (R-Palatka) said in the committee hearing.
Florida Atlantic University was caught overcharging students who took online classes.
Students were overbilled $2.8 million in fees for an upcoming building project.
“That really concerns me, that they would overcharge students to cover the cost of a capital project,” State Representative Mike Caruso (R-Delray Beach) stated.
Florida’s colleges and universities will be under the microscope for their spending as the DOGE movement takes hold in the state.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
