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Board Of ED Leader: Scotts $10,000 Degree Is ‘Gimmick’
November 30, 2012
Gov. Rick Scott’s effort to get colleges to offer $10,000 bachelor’s degrees “is not a serious policy” and will be “perceived as a gimmick,” the vice president of the state Board of Education wrote in a letter to Scott.
“Respectfully, I think that you have been provided with very poor advice on this portion of you plan,” Roberto Martinez wrote to Scott, asking him to work with the board on an alternative idea for making college more affordable – and to consider providing more state help.
“With the deep budget cuts over the last five years, it is difficult to conceive cutting the cost of instruction even further while maintaining a quality education,” Martinez wrote. “The cost of a Bachelor’s Degree at many of our colleges cost the students on average approximately $12,000. Reducing this further, to create a cheap four-year degree, will undermine the quality and value of the education, hurting our students’ chances to compete successfully in our 21st Century economy.”
Scott has challenged the state colleges – formerly known as community colleges but many of which now offer four-year degrees – to come up with ways to offer a four-year bachelor’s degree for under $10,000.
More than half of the 28 state colleges have said they will at least consider the idea.
By The News Service of Florida
Comments
10 Responses to “Board Of ED Leader: Scotts $10,000 Degree Is ‘Gimmick’”
Oh, and according to Florida college websites, foreign students pay same fees as out of state students. There’s no reason to blame everybody else for our troubles.
REGARDING:
“it’s getting so this country is only made up of service jobs and most of them are given to the “welfare recipients” not the ones who are trying to work and go to school.”
Please explain what you mean by “welfare recipients” and why it’s in quotes and why you believe people getting a job aren’t people trying to work.
Oh, and I’m reasonably sure this country still needs accountants, bankers and/or tellers, carpenters, chemical company workers, doctors, electricians, engineers (aerospace, agricultural, chemical, civil, electrical, electronic, mechanical, industrial — to name a few), farmers, iron workers, nurses, oilfield workers, paper mill workers, plumbers, police, soldiers and sailors, teachers, truckers.
Of course, I could be wrong.
David for workers
I think it is ridiculous for the State to fund education for those that are not even citizens of this country. Also, why couldn’t text books be offered as used for a minimal fee if they are returned. We have enough staff in all the offices to keep up with this and would help the pocket books of a lot of people that want their children to have an education and also adults who want to find a decent job. it’s getting so this country is only made up of service jobs and most of them are given to the “welfare recipents” not the ones who are trying to work and go to school. This country is going downhill and the politicians are not doing anything about it. Just see what condition we are going to be in in the next four years. I shudder to think how we are going to live, let alone have medical coverage. Only the wealthy will have that and they will let the rest of us die without it.
REGARDING:
“A good start would be to moderate the cost of textbooks. What a racket! ”
That MIGHT be a good start if the state were selling the textbooks.
They aren’t.
Back to the drawing board.
Of course, the state could buy the textbooks for the students to lower the costs (to the students, anyway, by passing it on to the taxpayres), but most likely those aren’t even costs figured into the $10,000 figure just as I doubt it includes the cost of clothes, food, cell phones during time in college.
David for value
Yes, the textbook racket is criminal. The identical “international version” is a fraction of the cost. As long as the government makes financing easy without regulating cost we will not see the end of it.
A quality $10,000 degree would be possible if you take out the filler classes. I understand the importance of a well-rounded education but I can tell you that a lot of the classes required to get a 4 yr. degree are nothing more than “income streams” for the colleges and have absolutely zero value to the student in the long run.
Another good place to start would be cutting office staff. There are a lot of positions that could be eliminated but the colleges want to keep their operating budgets as high as possible otherwise their allowance would be cut.
I’m not a Scott fan at all but I like this very obtainable goal.
A good start would be to moderate the cost of textbooks. What a racket! They charge exhorbitant fees for new AND used textbooks. My child is starting State College in the Spring, and her textbooks will be at least $250.00 to RENT for four classes – I’m talking music appreciation and things like that – not math or science textbooks which typically cost more.
How about some relief there PSC?
Duke, you completely miss the point. Wouldn’t education be less expensive for this precious “middle class” if we were not forced to foot the bill for students that pay nothing? It’s the biggest con since Madoff’s ponzi scheme.
Brick and mortar colleges are becoming less relevant all the time.
go to yt/goog and type in “don’t go to college”.
Student loan delinquency just hit another all time high.
Jimbo don’t you go complaing about diversity. It keeps folks like you and me safe in this world.
I don’t thing the Governor’s proposition is all that “out of line.” Have any of you seen how much a tenured professor make per anum? Another consideration is how much tuition is given out to foreigners for nothing other than claimed “diversity.” Sure, we need to learn about other cultures, but we shouldn’t have to pay more for our own kids education just because a college or university chooses to give education away for free.