Tuition Should Be Lower For Science Majors, Says Florida Task Force 457
Hugh Pickens writes "Jordan Weissmann writes that a task force commissioned by Florida Governor Rick Scott is putting the finishing touches on a proposal that would allow the state's public universities to charge lower tuition for studying topics thought to be in high demand among Florida employers including science, technology, engineering, and math. The hope is that by keeping certain degrees cheaper than others, Florida can encourage students into fields where it needs more talent. For some, it might seem inherently unfair to send dance majors deeper into debt just to keep tuition low for engineers, who are already poised to earn more once they graduate, but task force chair Dale Brill says tax dollars are scarce, and the public deserves the best possible return from its investment in education and that means spending more generously on the students who are most likely to help grow Florida's economy once they graduate. Brill also argues that too few young people consider their career prospects carefully when picking a major. 'We're trying to introduce some semblance of a market dynamic information in an environment where there is none,' Brill says. 'Most students couldn't tell you what they pay in tuition. In economics, pricing is all we have to determine and work out supply and demand. So, when the consumer is completely separated from the cost of a product, then the cost rises.'"
Remember when everyone was supposed to become an aerospace engineer and then the industry collapsed in the early 90s?
Re:Just happy to see a Republican supporting scien (Score:5, Interesting)
That being said, I paid my blood and my first born, thank you very much, and I don't support the next generation getting the free ride, particularly for students who are the most likely to have no trouble paying their loans back! This is silly popularism striking again.
Re:Just happy to see a Republican supporting scien (Score:5, Interesting)
Great idea. Wrong implementation. There are many pitfalls with making science degrees cheaper, like for example what happens when you switch majors?
The best implementation for this is to leave tuition prices alone and reward students who graduate with a degree in a preferred field and who then go on to work in that field with loan forgiveness. So for instance, if you get a CS degree from the University of Central Florida (like I did in '91), every year you work in the CS field you would fill out a form and the government would pay off a certain dollar amount of your student loans, up to a prescribed maximum. Say for instance they pay off $2500 a year in loans for 10 years.
Problem is offshoring and inshoring of US jobs (Score:5, Interesting)
If you want Americans to study STEM, you need to provide jobs for them. Why get a degree in engineering just to train to your H1B replacement, or to have you job offshored.
Florida economic degree? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Tuition should be lower /period/ (Score:5, Interesting)
Oversimplification. You can have low tuition, limited acceptance and high entry requirements, and the quality of new students will rise, because tuition will no longer be the reason why a poor but talented student doesn't take a slot, which then becomes available for a lower quality but wealthier student. Or you can have high tuition, low entry requirements, and the quality of students will rise, because it will be determined by how much they can pay, not by their ability.
Actually, I'm having trouble thinking of a scenario where taking tuition away as an obstacle to getting an education reduces the quality of education. You have some 'splaining to do, Anonymous Coward.
Two reasons this is bad (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Tuition should be lower /period/ (Score:5, Interesting)
Tuition should be zero. It works in Germany.
Re:Tuition should be lower /period/ (Score:4, Interesting)
I totally disagree with you. In Germany, where I am from, we have no such thing as a tuition fee (beside Bavaria and Lower-Saxony). Politics introduced a symbolic fee of € 1000 a year a couple of years ago. It's only effect was, that poor people did not try to get into university. In the last 5 years almost all states dropped these fees again. The overall time students required to finish their studies did not change over that tuition fee experiment time only the number of students where diminished.
Some studies showed that by collection tuition fees, the number of students doing part-time studies rose and so their overall time to complete doubled. However, these results are not that significant, as part-time studies are a relatively new concept supported by universities.
Nevertheless, it is safe to say. Tuition fees do not have any effect on the seriousness of the way how people take their studies. A tuition free education allows you to select that topic you are interested in, which will most likely result in a high motivated student. While when your decision is, "lets do something where I can definitely pay back my dept" then this may result in a different selection of topics. Topics you are not that good. How will you ever by excellent at it, if it is not the thing you want to do?
NO, this is the opposite from how it should be (Score:4, Interesting)
Science majors in high-demand fields should be given subsidized loads because they are likely to get good paying jobs and will be able to pay off the loans. What the science majors are doing is going to directly benefit themselves the most.
What we should be doing is given lower tuition to liberal arts majors that are unlikely to get good paying jobs. Their degrees benefit society (by way of having an educated, informed electorate) more than the degree holder.
Before you mod me down, realize that this is the position of (conservative/libertarian and award-winning economist) Milton Friedman.
Re:Just happy to see a Republican supporting scien (Score:4, Interesting)
Republicans who are against abortion are almost always also against any kind of welfare or assistance program that would help the mother actually raise the child in something other than complete and abject poverty.