It’s not just the money or the politicians. Something is amiss in the notion of supporting our brightest futures. Even Grinnell, a school with one-thirtieth UF’s student body, has an endowment $200 million larger than UF’s. The University of Virginia’s endowment is approaching $5 billion. Compare Florida to North Carolina and Virginia, two states that do make higher education a priority. It’s a little disturbing that Sadie’s college costs at UF, all grants and scholarships aside, would have still been steeper at that $19,000-a-year school than at Grinnell, where it costs $50,000 a year.Įndowments, which underwrite the price of a great faculty and provide students more access through generous financial aid, tell a story. Bright Futures, the full-ride scholarship once given to the state’s best students, is now a tease, covering just half an entering freshman’s tuition. The Legislature’s assault on public universities has been no less severe, with a $300 million cut this year alone. What Stolen Election Diehards Owe Holocaust Deniers.‘Enough’ Is Not Enough: Flagler’s Dangerous Leer at Extremism. A Qualified Defense of Trump Supporters’ Obscenities in Flagler Beach.Palm Coast at a Crossroad: Assassins of Civility or Governance.Why is the Flagler County Commission Holding New School Construction Hostage?.The Flagler School Board’s Shameless War on Equity.The County Commission’s Choice: Filth or Statesmanship.Why All Boys Aren’t Blue Belongs in High School Libraries: A Response to Brian McMillan.Flagler School Libraries Face Chilling Dangers Beyond Book Bans.Liberals Must See Past the No-Exit Calvinism of Critical Race Theory.It is privatizing the system by way of charter schools, the cheaper, less accountable way of pretending that our children are getting educated. It harasses students with standardized testing that would fail any credibility test. It treats its teachers as if they were robotic data-entry secretaries rather than professional educators. The Legislature takes pleasure in short-changing it financially. It’s becoming a wasteland of tourist ghettoes, sunbathing spreads and Medicare colonies, its golf courses tended more lovingly than its classrooms.įlorida does not take its K through 12 school system seriously. It’s not joining the ranks of competitive, high-tech states with an innovative or sought-after workforce. I doubt we’re the only ones in this spot, which says plenty about the state of public education in Florida: that state is closer to dismal than acceptable, and it’s an indication of where Florida is heading. We shouldn’t have been so relieved that she could turn down the state’s best public university. Just as important: She got her visa out of Florida. Not only that: she was granted a full ride and then some. Then last week Grinnell College in Iowa called. She finally enrolled, to her great disappointment and ours, at the University of Florida. But she was wait-listed at her four top choices, all four of them out of state. My daughter Sadie, who’s completed the IB program at Flagler Palm Coast High School, had high hopes. As many parents know, April can be the cruelest month, breeding college rejection letters from across the land.
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