Tuition increases at Florida colleges are about to end, as Gov. Rick Scott has repealed a law that allows them to raise tuition every year.

Under the bill Scott just signed, the state's 12 campuses now have to ask permission from lawmakers any time they want to charge more for tuition.

The law is aimed at ending an era of the annual double-digit tuition increases that Florida A&M students Shannelle Edwards and Shannon Perry said have led many of their classmates to drop out.

"As you go on in the years, you see more people not coming to college, like, you see this person this semester - next semester, they're gone," Edwards said. "It's like 'What happened'? And they just say 'I couldn't afford it, it's too much.'"

For Scott, the bill is a convenient way to appeal to a critical group of voters: Florida's cost-conscious middle class.  

Critics argue that you don't get something for nothing, and that a quality education doesn't come without a significant investment in an attracting and retaining top professors, which university leaders say will make a degree from a Florida university all the more valuable.

Further, Democrats say the tuition bill is just a campaign move, and that since he's been governor, universities have raised tuition by more than 24 percent.

But Scott disagrees, and he's criticizing his likely Democratic opponent, former Gov. Charlie Crist, for signing the annual tuition hikes into law.

"A 15 percent tuition increase every year is the right thing to do, Charlie?" Scott said.

Edwards and Perry say college is quickly becoming "unaffordable," and that even though tuition at FAMU is well below the national average, they say they are happy with what they are getting in return.