October 25, 2011. “Gov. Scott doesn’t know jack about how education and business work in India and China.”
Mark Allen Peterson
October 24, 2011
Gov. Scott has declared that Florida doesn’t need any more anthropologists and needs to cut back on psychologists and other social scientists as well. Oh, and Florida doesn’t need humanities, either.
The governor is pushing a plan that would starve liberal arts and social sciences in the state’s public universities, with the backing of the state Legislature’s GOP majority. His rationale is that to create jobs, Florida needs rigorous programs in math, engineering, science and technology, like they have in India and China, so we can stay competitive.
Which makes me realize that Gov. Scott doesn’t know jack about how education and business work in India and China.
Let’s look at India. There are two basic layers of education, public and private. Unlike the U.S., all the best schools are public, and they are paid for by the national government. To obtain this free education, one must pass a national exam, which includes not only quantitative and language measures, like the SAT or ACT in the U.S., but also a significant category called “General Knowledge.”
Read more at palmbeachpost.com