Eligible high-school students can get free tuition for FDTC courses
By Bobby Bryant, Editor, editor@newsandpress.net
Starting next semester, tuition will be free for eligible high-school students who also take courses at Florence-Darlington Technical College, officials say.
An increase in funding for S.C. WINS (Workforce and Industrial Needs) scholarships will allow the college to offer this benefit, college interim president Ed Bethea told the commission that oversees FDTC last week.
S.C. WINS scholarships are intended to help fill workforce shortages in the state. They cover the tuition cost of courses at FDTC after the student receives all other scholarship funding.
The state lottery system also channels funds into the system to help defray tuition costs.
Bethea called it a “wonderful gift” for students.
In other business, the commission received results of an audit covering Florence-Darlington Technical College’s fiscal year that ended June 30. Staffers called the audit “great … a good, clean audit.”
Bethea noted that the college has about $8 million cash on hand, about $3 million more than at this time last year. “It’s good to see that kind of cash on hand,” he said, “but you’ve got to make it all the way to the end” of the fiscal year.
