SANFORD, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference Monday morning in Sanford to tout money in the budget for nursing education.
“Today, we’re going to be able to say that in the budget we’re going to have — just with two really significant programs — an additional $125 million of support,” DeSantis said.
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DeSantis said some of the money was derived from money earmarked for workforce education with the goal of creating a pipeline of nurses into the state’s health care industry.
“This pipeline program will financially reward colleges and universities for excellence in nursing education programs, based on their student performance,” the governor said. “Institutions will use these earned dollars to invest in their programs and we’re also doing another $25 million to establish the LINE Fund, which is linking industry to nursing education, which will directly go towards combating the shortage of nursing instructors.”
DeSantis added that the $25 million will be matched dollar for dollar by health care providers.
“We already have a huge amount of interest in this program,” DeSantis said. “That $25 million that is going to go very quickly, because it’s important that these hospitals and these health systems see the ability to expand their workforce and they put in $1, we invest $1 and everybody wins.”
The governor was joined by Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo and Senate President Wilton Simpson at the news conference.