Top Three Takeaways – March 24th, 2021
- Bright Futures untouched. After significant backlash was brought against Senate Republicans who dared tweak the state’s lottery funded scholarship program, ranging from Governor DeSantis to countless parents of future liberal arts majors – status quo will mostly win out. That’s to say, that at a minimum, no funding changes will come into play based upon a student’s preferred course of study in this year’s state session. This is instructive in multiple ways. First, it illustrates the impact you can make when you choose to make your voice heard. The proposed change had already cleared committee votes at the time it was scrapped. It was well on its way – until it wasn’t. Yes, the Governor speaking out against it played a role but the reason the governor was even asked about it was because of Floridians who made their voices heard. That’s encouraging. It’s also consistent with what I said when I discussed this last Thursday saying... The question becomes where the money will come from. The future for Florida’s students has never been brighter but Bright Futures Scholarship on the other hand... Something tells me parents will end up happy with the result here but some in the K-12 education establishment...not so much. Right, there’s still the matter of money and with lottery revs not keeping pace with the record number of Floridians eligible for the scholarships, something will have to give. And that give will come in the form of diverting a portion of lottery funds away from K-12 education and towards Bright Futures scholarships. There’s no free lunch here but there is a desire for...
- The Status Quo. Question for you. What should the goal be of attending college for most students? What should the goal be of state-funded college scholarships? Shouldn’t the answer most commonly be...a career? That’s where the status quo mindset isn’t helpful. Why is it that when the idea of tasking the Board of Governors to create a report identifying which fields of study at post-secondary institutions are most likely to lead to jobs upon graduation, and those least likely, liberal arts educators and parents of future liberal arts majors went off? Isn’t that a bit of an acknowledgment that many liberal arts fields of study aren’t successful at accomplishing the primary goal of a college education? And isn’t the ignoring of that reality, and the embracing of the status quo, an admission of failure of sorts? Isn’t it at least valuable for young adults to have empirical information in hand regarding their job prospects with given career fields? I say this as a former English-Communications major who took Art History as an elective. But I also say this as the founder of a Savannah-based smoothie company which had an endless supply of Savannah College of Art and Design graduates for employees. Don’t get me wrong, I was thrilled to have them but I’m pretty sure they weren’t spending over $40,000 a year, over twenty years ago, to obtain a degree to work in a smoothie shop. The bottom line is this. There’s a time and place for everything. For parents and educators who want to stick their head in the sand – it's a disservice to kids who don’t know better.
- Major in what you’ll pursue a career in and minor in what you love. For touchy-feely types who don’t want to warm up to reality, this is the best path forward for your kids. College is too expensive, and life is too short to throw a lot of it away chasing an altered sense of reality. Whether the original Bright Futures proposed changes were the best ideas or not is somewhat beside the point. The premise behind the proposed changes was valid. And that’s also why the revised proposal still tasks the Board of Governors with creating the annual career prospect list with degree fields – just without funding levels tied to them. Parents, and especially students, have a right to know. Unless you’re a trust-fund kid on your parent’s dime, college isn’t a place to “find yourself” in 2021 but there is a way to strike a balance...and like most things in life it’s better that way anyway. But the status quo? That’s rarely a good idea and never works overtime - yet it’s remarkable how many people, especially in the education establishment, will fight like hell for it. What does that tell you?
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