December 11, 2012--U of F
Maybe it's the sun and heat (it was 88 degrees in Delray Beach yesterday afternoon), perhaps after having been in New York City for a month and being surrounded by fellow liberals, maybe because of this I find at least one thing my wintertime governor is up to makes some sense.
Yes, the same Governor Rick Scott who got the state legislature to pass a law requiring anyone seeking public assistance to be drug tested, the same Rick Scott who invented all sorts of voter-supprerssion shenanigans to steal the state for Mitt Romney and thereby launch his own national political career (God help us), yes, there is something he's up to that I am tempted to agree with but is guaranteed to get me into deep trouble with my Big Apple friends:
He is pressing all Florida state colleges and universities to link tuition to major. Under his plan it would cost students less if they major in science, information technology, and heath services than if they opt to study history or philosophy. This would cost students thousands more (or less) each year in tuition as an incentive to get them to prepare for careers in fields that are growing and that, in his view, contribute to Florida's economy. He calls these fields "strategic areas."
As an old English and Comp Lit major (and I mean that more than metaphorically) I can barely believe that I believe this is a credible policy.
He says--
Whatever one thinks of Scott and his Tallahassee cronies (in general I think less than very little about their regressive and mean-spirited policies), there is no doubt that the Florida economy is severely strained and tax revenues are way down. As a result, there have been deep cuts in state support for public higher education. As in most other states. And although it is still relatively inexpensive to attend a state institution in Florida, in recent years tuition costs have risen a total of more than 70 percent.
To be able to cut the cost of obtaining a degree in engineering so that the total cost of the four years would be only $10,000 (the Scott plan) is hard to argue against. In an ideal world it would also be good to be able to do this for history majors; but we live in a much less than ideal world, and to use government policy and taxpayer money to support economic growth is the very sort of thing liberals would like to see enacted via stimulus programs.
Might the Scott plan for major-based tuition be considered a form of stimulus? Complicated. What do you think?
Yes, the same Governor Rick Scott who got the state legislature to pass a law requiring anyone seeking public assistance to be drug tested, the same Rick Scott who invented all sorts of voter-supprerssion shenanigans to steal the state for Mitt Romney and thereby launch his own national political career (God help us), yes, there is something he's up to that I am tempted to agree with but is guaranteed to get me into deep trouble with my Big Apple friends:
He is pressing all Florida state colleges and universities to link tuition to major. Under his plan it would cost students less if they major in science, information technology, and heath services than if they opt to study history or philosophy. This would cost students thousands more (or less) each year in tuition as an incentive to get them to prepare for careers in fields that are growing and that, in his view, contribute to Florida's economy. He calls these fields "strategic areas."
As an old English and Comp Lit major (and I mean that more than metaphorically) I can barely believe that I believe this is a credible policy.
He says--
If I'm going to take money from a citizen to put in education then I'm going to take that money to create jobs. So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state.As you might expect he is being excoriated by liberal-arts types such as me. Well, maybe not by me.
Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologist? I don't think so.
Whatever one thinks of Scott and his Tallahassee cronies (in general I think less than very little about their regressive and mean-spirited policies), there is no doubt that the Florida economy is severely strained and tax revenues are way down. As a result, there have been deep cuts in state support for public higher education. As in most other states. And although it is still relatively inexpensive to attend a state institution in Florida, in recent years tuition costs have risen a total of more than 70 percent.
To be able to cut the cost of obtaining a degree in engineering so that the total cost of the four years would be only $10,000 (the Scott plan) is hard to argue against. In an ideal world it would also be good to be able to do this for history majors; but we live in a much less than ideal world, and to use government policy and taxpayer money to support economic growth is the very sort of thing liberals would like to see enacted via stimulus programs.
Might the Scott plan for major-based tuition be considered a form of stimulus? Complicated. What do you think?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:32 AM
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