Florida’s approach to strategic planning for higher education is ad-hoc and lacks vision, according to a report released Wednesday by the LeRoy Collins Institute.
In her report, institute director Carol Weissert points out that there hasn’t been an independent commission for higher education planning in Florida since 2005.
The State Board of Education, State University System, Florida College System and Higher Education Coordinating Council, work in separate silos and are too narrowly focused on performance measures, Weissert says.
“The earlier commission, the one that’s no longer here, also set out criteria for new higher education institutes, they had a report on baccalaureate degrees, perhaps being given at community colleges in 1998, so they were really ahead of the curve.”
Law and medical schools have sprung up, but more for political reasons than anything else, Weissert says.
She says Florida could learn from Texas, where an independent commission wants every resident between 18 and 30 to have a degree or professional certificate by 2030.
