[Cincinatus' Wife]

Perry Draws Flak for Plan to Run Universities Like Businesses ……..”Perry, who has been governor since 2000, has filled state boards and commissions with those who share his vision and has launched a public attack on college costs.

“A bold, Texas-style solution,” the governor said in an address to the Legislature. “I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelor’s degrees that cost no more than $10,000, including textbooks.”

The amount is about a quarter of what students at the University of Texas and Texas A&M pay for tuition and books. An organization formed to fight the changes, Texas Coalition for Excellence in Higher Education, counts among its members power Republicans such as TRT Holdings Chief Executive Robert Rowling, who gave $1 million to the conservative “super PAC” American Crossroads. Handling media for the group former George W. Bush adviser Karen Hughes, the Post reported.

Nonetheless, some of Perry’s higher-education ideas could be catching on elsewhere. Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he was passing on a list of higher education reform ideas from Texas known as the “Seven Breakthrough Solutions” to candidates for the Florida university and college boards of trustees, the Post reported.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Aug. 2011; Perry creates online university Gov. Rick Perry announced Wednesday that Texas is getting a branch of Western Governors University, a private, nonprofit school whose online model dovetails with Perry's emphasis on flexibility and affordability in higher education.

An executive order issued by Perry calls on the state's education and workforce agencies to help Western Governors establish WGU Texas.

[traditional1]

You mean Majors in "Diversity Studies" and "Women's Rights" and "The Black Experience" are not productive in Society?

Whoda thunk.....

[DJ MacWoW]

What?! You Didn't Donate?!

Click The Pic

Even Monsters Are Shocked That You Don't Support FR!

[grobdriver]

It seems the truth of this is, rather:

If you're a student trying to earn a degree in anthropology, or even journalism, Governor Rick Scott says don't bother asking the government to pay for it.

[BfloGuy]

I'm not too crazy about politicians' trying to micro-manage the curriculum. Slash administrative and construction budgets, but stay out of the course offerings.

And if student loans weren't handed out like lollipops, abominations such as "Africana Studies" would likely collapse on their own.

[WeatherGuy]

Natalie Odom is majoring in mass communications at the University of South Florida. She says, "I think it's awful because not everyone has an interest in math and science and if he cuts out areas that people have an interest in, that is just going to make for less students enrolled in college because they may not want to study a field that they have no desire or passion to study."

Thanks for proving the Governor's point, Natalie. You'd think a "journalism" major would know the proper usage of "less" and "fewer".

[FlingWingFlyer]

How many anthropologists and “journalists” does this country really need? Getting a crap education results in the graduates laying around on Wall Street whining about not being able to find a “job”.

[Argus]

"...that is just going to make for less students enrolled in college..."

You say that like it's a bad thing, Natalie.

[NoGrayZone]

Hey, a degree in Underwater Basket Weaving can get you very far up that ladder of success.

[shield]

Perry Ping....

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[Matchett-PI]

bttt

[chickenlips]

This will likely result in a barista shortage at Starbucks.

[chickenlips]

This will likely result in a barista shortage at Starbucks.

[SoJoCo]

Natalie Odom is majoring in mass communications at the University of South Florida. She says, "I think it's awful because not everyone has an interest in math and science and if he cuts out areas that people have an interest in, that is just going to make for less students enrolled in college because they may not want to study a field that they have no desire or passion to study."

Yeah! And besides, without mass communications majors where would Starbucks get its barristas?

[smoothsailing]

Good for Scott and Perry for holding the education system accountable!

Get The Commies Out Of Our Classrooms!

[GeronL]

That is a good idea. Why should we subsidize a future bum?

[Paperdoll]

It would just be nice if Universities were run as halls of higher learning and not political hotbeds of Communism.
But then most students would flunk out today, having graduated from government high schools.

[SES1066]

I am a seasonal tax preparer and I know something that might affect all of these degree candidates in fields that are NOT very job beneficial. The Bush tax cuts were only extended through the 2012 tax year and one of these sunsetted deductions is the 5+ year deduction on student loan interest. Without congressional action, in 2013 a taxpayer will only be able to claim the 1st 5 years of student loan interest as a deduction at a max rate of $2,500 per year!

Let us take one of those posted 99% who has a student loan debt of $60k and an MA in Art History. That lack of $2,500 deduction will hurt and the odds of getting a job that will make up for that lack are slim unless you have made yourself one of the elite in that field.

What Gov. Scott is pointing out is that taking on loads of student debt is an unwise move if you don't have a real potential for a well-paying job after college. This is real life and there are very real consequences to poor decision making. Correspondingly, the student aid offices in all of these colleges appear to be more interested in keeping seats filled in classes than in student's welfare after graduation!

[Recon Dad]

She says, “I think it’s awful because not everyone has an interest in math and science and if he cuts out areas that people have an interest in, that is just going to make for less students enrolled in college because they may not want to study a field that they have no desire or passion to study.”

Honey, I was a mass communications major so you can take this to the bank, the major is a joke. You will find out the hard way that the entry level positions in the industry are jobs that pay nothing and can be performed by high school juniors you’ll wish you hadn’t waisted your time and mommy and daddy’s money.

[chuckee]

“According to the American Anthropology Association, about 64 percent of those with a graduate degree in anthropology find a job within 12 months of graduating”

Why do I get the notion that the only bones these anthropology graduates are picking through are the ones that
they uncover working the fryer at Kentucky Fried Chicken.