Associated Press
It is not yet clear exactly what Gov. Rick Scott’s vision for a revamped State University System will look like. All we know so far is that it involves two dynamics — continually reducing state funding while prohibiting universities from raising tuition sufficiently to make up the difference.
Whether Scott’s Cheaper State U will be up to the challenge of preparing Floridians to compete in an increasingly high-tech economy is not yet known. But we do know that UF and its sister institutions have their work cut out for them.
This week a state-by-state comparison released by the U.S. Department of Education indicated that the number of young Floridians who hold college degrees is actually on the decline; dropping by nearly 20,000 between 2009 and 2010.
“The Florida drop runs counter to a national uptick in college-educated Americans…,” The Orlando Sentinel reports. “In 2010 15.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 had a college degree, a bump of about 100,000 from the year before.”
Florida was among 20 states experiencing a decline in the number of young college grads.
“States have to continue to invest” in higher education, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters this week.
As Florida’s supply of young college graduates dwindles, Gov. Scott seems determined to reinvent public higher education on a disinvestment model.
In business lingo we suppose you’d call that ROD; Return on Disinvestment.