When it comes to college admissions, years of military instruction should count more than a high school education, says state Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton.

Bennett is renewing his push to give military veterans from Florida automatic admission to the state college of their choice if they want to pursue a math or science major.

He said that many people who opt for the military rather than college might not have had the grades or test scores needed while in high school to pursue a university degree. And, he added, military instruction should count toward their education because the experience helps them grow as an individual.

“The military makes new people of these kids, it really does,” said Bennett, a military veteran who brags that the service changed him from a below-average high school student.

“We have so many young people who ... their first two years of college were rather young and wild and had a great time, and study wasn’t what they wanted to do, who went into the military and spent four years, five years 10 years in the military and they came out a completely different person.”

Educators have not jumped to support the bill.