By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-987518.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Lawmakers are taking up the suggestion by Governor Rick Scott to review how the state's public universities operate. Scott says Florida should look at Texas as a model and take up the issues of revising the way professors are paid and retained and schools are funded. But as Lynn Hatter reports, not all lawmakers are on board with the Texas plan.
Senate President Designate Don Gaetz kicked off the conversation of higher education reform by making it a priority in his address to the Senate Republican caucus.
"Reform is never finished. Success is never final. So now it's time to inject relevance and urgency into our universities. We no longer have the luxury of producing another generation of graduates steeped in intellectually interesting majors for which there is no job market and whose technological understanding is limited to friending people on facebook."
Gaetz says the state needs more science and technology degrees and universities need a shakeup. That shakeup has already started, courtesy of Governor Rick Scott. He's has been calling for reforms similar to what's happening in Texas. That state is pushing a system that limits long-term contracts known as tenure for professors. The Texas model is getting a lukewarm reception from lawmakers like State Senator Steve Oelrich. He's a Cross-Creek Republican who also chairs the Senate's Higher Education Committee.
"I'm willing to look at the Texas plan, but I'm not completely sold on it because the university presidents don't like it.
Texas wants schools to run more like businesses, looking at things like efficiency and faculty productivity. It's also looking to tie higher education funding to graduation rates. State Senator Evelyn Lynn says, those are ideas Florida has been looking at for years.
"Long before the Texas plan was ever alive anywhere, and that's 10 years ago, we've talked about access, affordability and accountability. So I don't want us to jump too quickly into saying we've done nothing before Texas. That's not true."
State Senator Joe Negron says not all of the responsibility for education should fall on the university.
"I think the primary responsibility for graduating on time falls on the student to take advantage of the educational opportunities they have."
Negron also says he'd like to see a closer look at how colleges and universities operate. Four years ago the legislature allowed most of the state's community colleges to offer four-year degrees. As a result, some community colleges have changed their names, and often times their programs bump up against existing university programs creating turf battles. And it's here, says Negron, that the state should look at making some changes.
"You actually have a Florida State College in Jacksonville that likes to go by Florida State and to many people College and University is synonymous. I think the rise of Colleges and they're entry into the baccalaureate market has created confusion and potentially could result in students not really knowing what they're degree is worth and how it's received in the marketplace."
One suggestion for streamlining state college and university bachelor's degree programs is to move the colleges under the board of governors, which oversees Florida's 11 public universities. The system is headed by Chancellor Frank Brogan.
"I'm not advocating but thinking big. Maybe you consolidate a university and a state college. Maybe you consolidate a campus maybe you take the state college members that are offering "x" number of baccalaureate degrees and place them under the board of governors."
The idea of moving some state colleges under the authority of the Florida Board of Governors is controversial says Joe Pickens is the President of St. Joe State College and a former lawmaker.
"I will tell you that at the state board of education meeting, I did have a dialogue with the board about our desire to remain unified as a college system."
Right now, state and community colleges produce one-percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in Florida. Pickens says in the next decade, that number won't go above five-percent.
"I don't know that changing our entire governing structure because of five-percent of our mission is the best way to promote the other 95-percent of our mission which is going to be workforce development, certificate programs and AA degrees and AS degrees and community outreach."
State Senator Steve Oelrich says he doesn't expect the system undergo radical changes this year, but also says, change is coming. Governor Rick Scott has made higher education reform a priority but what that will look like, and include is far from being settled.