FlaglerLive’s editor reflects on the painful and joyful history behind a moment unexpectedly captured by a photographer at his daughter’s graduation from Grinnell College last week.
higher education
A Lifetime In One Picture
Florida Senate Wants 81% Increase in Aid for Poorer College Students, and Boost For 1st-Gen
Florida student assistance grants would grow by $121 million. Senators also want to double the state’s matching grants for “first generation” college and university students to a total of $10.6 million.
Florida Colleges Decry Legislature’s Budget Cuts of Up to $85 Million
The Senate budget includes a $55 million reduction in remedial education funding and suspends $30 million in performance funding for the colleges. The House cuts similar amounts to other programs.
Florida Senate Moves to Replace Tuition Billing By Credit Hour With Controversial Flat-Fee Plan
The dilemma: how to move to a block-tuition system without financially penalizing students while at the same time providing incentives for them to take enough courses per semester to graduate in four years.
The Unnecessary Controversy Over “Sanctuary Campuses”
Even if colleges were targeted by the Trump administration, numerous privacy and legal obstacles remain before administrators would be enlisted in identifying students for deportation.
Enrollment in Florida’s 28 State Colleges Plummets 13.5% as Economy Rebounds
The actual head count of state college students is about 780,000 this year, down from a peak of nearly 900,000 in 2010. More than 60 percent attend part-time.
Bright Futures Scholarships Could Expand to Summer to Speed Up Graduation Rates
Only 44 percent of students graduated in four years at 11 state universities. Summer scholarships would encourage more students to attend summer classes, increasing the chances they can graduate more quickly.
Florida Universities Seeking $14.5 Million Extra To Meet Spiking Demand for Mental Health
Universities saw a 48 percent increase in demands for counseling and other mental health services, and an increase in emergency or crisis visits, involving issues like severe depression, acute anxiety and suicidal thoughts.
Indentured Regression: Marco Rubio Thinks College Students Should Be Sharecroppers
Marco Rubio is proposing human capital contracts as a way for college students to pay tuition: investors would foot the bill and claim a percentage of the graduates’ income for years. It’s a terrible idea.
Guns on Florida Campuses: University System Says No, Citing Values and Protection
Florida’s university system wants state lawmakers to holster the idea of allowing guns on campus, saying it would jeopardize providing a safe and secure learning environment.
Florida Lawmakers Seek Secrecy For College and University Searches and Vetting of Candidates
Pointing to the possibility of a “chilling effect” if word gets out, a House bill filed Friday would allow information to be kept confidential about people applying to become presidents, provosts or deans of state universities or colleges.
George Will’s Sex Assault Chauvinism
The oft-reported number of sex assault in college is likely too inflated, but when columnist George Will insisted that women who say they have been raped assume a “coveted status” on campus, it was as nasty a remark as Steve Robinson imagines has ever made it past Will’s editors. A counterpoint.
Daytona State College Prof. Nabeel Yousef Earns Fulbright Scholarship and Heads for Jordan
Dr. Nabeel Yousef, an associate professor in Daytona State College’s School of Engineering Technology, has been selected for a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship to Jordan this fall.
More Parents Are Defaulting on College Loans For Their Children, Costing Taxpayers
The Parent Plus program allows parents to take out essentially uncapped amounts to cover college costs, regardless of the borrower’s income or ability to repay the loan. But default rates, while still modest, have nearly tripled over the last four years.
Rick Scott’s Dilemma: Helping Undocumented-Immigrant Students Or Sticking to His Base
While Scott has repeatedly said he supports a proposal to end annual 15 percent tuition hikes, he’s remained mum about the portion of the bill that would grant in-state tuition to undocumented students, or Dreamers.
Florida Lawmakers Edging Toward Offering In-State Tuition for Some Undocumented Immigrants
A measure allowing some undocumented students to receive in-state tuition was easily approved Wednesday by a House subcommittee, but the bill still faces a steep climb in the Senate.
How I’m Graduating My Children From College Debt-Free: Planning, and Lots of Hard Work
Explaining what it takes to develop college-ready students and debt-free parents, columnist and Matanzas High teacher Jo An n Nahiriny describes the frustrations of dealing with students and families who don’t plan ahead and busts the myth that a college education must be debt-ridden.
Immigration Reform’s Latest Cheering Section: Florida College and University Presidents
Florida college and university presidents are calling on Congress to pass immigration reform this year, saying it would be better for the state’s economy if foreign students could stay after graduation, instead of being forced to take their diplomas and leave.
At Public Universities, More Aid Is Going To the Wealthy Than to The Neediest
Attention has long been focused on the lack of economic diversity at private colleges, especially at the most elite schools. What has been little discussed is how public universities, which enroll far more students, have gradually shifted their priorities — and a growing portion of their aid dollars — toward wealthier students.
We’re the Most Educated Young Adults in American History, Yet Many of Us Can’t Find Work
What happens when we can’t find work and can’t pay our loans, asks Colleen Teubner. We invest about four years of our lives and up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in our education, and then spend the next decade trying to get out of ever-increasing debt.
Board of Governors Shoots Down Florida College Fee Increases Backed By Students
The most sweeping decision, rejected 3-2, came on a proposal by eight universities to increase the “capital improvement trust fund” fees, or CITF fees, which pay for construction projects approved by university panels that draw at least half their members from the student body.
Florida College Presidents’ Compensation Ranges From $143,866 to $630,157
The contracts for Florida’s 28 state college presidents range widely, totaling almost $10 million in compensation, and in several cases seem to violate state law, according to a review released Monday by Gov. Rick Scott’s top oversight official.
Daytona State Hires Point Man for Federal Jobs-Training Program Combatting Outsourcing
Randall White is the new project manager of Daytona State College’s federally funded Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training initiative, designed to help retrain those losing work to outsourcing.
Higher Ed Subprime: Parent Plus Government College Loans Are Now Crushing Families
Last year the government disbursed $10.6 billion in Parent Plus loans to just under a million families. The loans are both remarkably easy to get and nearly impossible to get out from under for families who’ve overreached.
Florida Colleges Vow to Be 1st in U.S. to Double Graduation Rates By 2020–With Extra Funding
Florida’s 28 state and community colleges will request a 35 percent increase in state funding to reach those goals and think Gov. Rick Scott will back their play. Graduating from a four-year college costs $23,647.
The Erosion of Study Time in College
The time college students actually study outside of class has dwindled from 24 hours a week to about 15. The trend is generating debate over how much students really learn, even as colleges raise tuition every year.
Gator Shame: Why I’m Relieved My Daughter Won’t Be Attending the University of Florida
Athletics aside, Florida doesn’t take its public universities and public schools seriously, making it difficult for top students to stay here–or for the state to depend on more than tourist ghettoes, sunbathing spreads and Medicare colonies.
Florida Legislators Cut Higher Ed $300 Million Even as They Create a 12th University
House and Senate lawmakers agreed to create Florida Polytechnic University, a pet project of Sen. J.D. Alexander’s, and slash university spending by $300 million, paving the way for an on-time ending to the legislative session.
The Myth of Liberal College Indoctrination
Attacking liberal professors and universities as elitists or snobs like Rick Santorum did helps position the conservative movement as a populist enterprise by identifying a predatory elite to which conservatism stands opposed — an otherwise difficult task for a movement strongly backed by holders of economic power.
Florida Senate Passes $70.7 Billion Budget, Cutting Higher Education By $400 Million
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a $70.7 billion spending plan for the coming budget year on Thursday, with a 33-6 vote, setting up a two-week window for negotiating with the House’s smaller budget.
K-12 Education Would Get a $1.2 Billion Boost, Higher Ed Would Be Slashed By $400 Million
The proposed increase–and higher ed decrease–comes as Gov. Scott has vowed to veto any budget that does not significantly increase education spending, even though lawmakers are trying to close a nearly $2 billion shortfall without raising taxes.
In a Break, College Presidents Draw a Line Against Universities Over Tuition Increases
Breaking with their counterparts at the state’s universities, presidents at a handful of Florida colleges urged lawmakers to be cautious about any moves that could push tuition upward again.
U.S. Citizen, Floridian, But Denied In-State Tuition Over Parents’ Status: Senate Kills Fix
A measure that would grant in-state tuition to Florida high school students who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are in the country illegally was voted down Tuesday by a Senate committee.
A La Carte College Tuition: Florida’s Science-Tech Majors Could End Up Paying More
Florida’s quest for more science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees might eventually lead to a quest for higher tuition for students entering those programs, based on comments by higher education leaders.
Class-Action Lawsuit Calls Florida’s In-State College Tuition Restrictions Unconstitutional
American citizens who’ve lived in Florida for years and have all the documents to prove it are denied in-state tuition rights the moment they can’t prove that their parents are lawful Florida residents–an unconstitutional form of discrimination against citizens, the Southern Poverty Law Center charges in the lawsuit.
Universities Defend Against Rick Scott’s Primitive War on Anthropologists
Not wanting tax dollars spent educating anthropologists, Rick Scott appeared unaware that the science is among the STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and math) he himself is emphasizing to add jobs in Florida.
Borrowing From Rick Perry: Gov. Rick Scott Wants More Texas in Florida Universities
Gov. Rick Scott wants to treat universities and colleges more like private businesses, as Rick Perry is trying to do in Texas, with more scrutiny over professor and university performance.
Students as Customers, Universities as Businesses: Scott’s Plan To Texify Higher Ed
Gov. Rick Scott is following Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s lead in higher ed: merit pay for professors, tenure reform, and generally a greater emphasis on business-like measurement of whether professors are turning out students that meet certain goals.
Florida’s Betrayal of College Students: Sticking It to the Young, Pandering to the Old
Between Florida public universities’ tuition increasing almost 140 percent in 10 years and Bright Futures scholarship losing half their value, the state is betraying its future while pandering to older, more selfish voters.
Preliminary SAT Results Show Higher Scores for Flagler’s Class of 2010
In all but math at FPC, students at the county’s two high schools improved when compared with last year’s seniors. Some 1.6 million students took the test in the last round.
Florida’s High School Students Near Bottom in College Readiness; Flagler’s Do Worse
The college readiness scores, trending downward for the state and for Flagler, undermine the state’s contention that it is improving education on a nationally competitive level.
Don’t Fall For It: The “Obama Mom” College Grant Scam
Obama mom ads are everywhere. But there’s no such thing as an Obama grant for moms, who are eligible for Pell Grants, student loans and other aid like anybody else.
Flagler Schools’ FCAT Reading Scores Disappoint, Math Scores a Plus
Every grade but the 6th and 9th posted declines in reading. The district did better in math, either improving or holding steady in all grades except the 5th.