Don’t award state college scholarships on field of study’s path to job

There’s a move in the Florida Legislature to cut public scholarship funding to college students who are majoring in areas of study that don’t have a clear, immediate path to employment after they graduate.

Its author, Sen. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, who operates funeral homes in Florida, was a sociology major who minored in psychology in college. He said it wasn’t until he returned to school to get a degree in mortuary science that he found an employable avenue of study.

Yes, death is a booming business in Florida. Put down that poetry book, young scholars, and learn the wonders of cadaver prep.

“As taxpayers, we should all be concerned about subsidizing degrees that just lead to debt, instead of the jobs our students want and need,” Baxley explained. “We encourage all students to pursue their passions, but when it comes to taxpayer-subsidized education, there needs to be a link to our economy, and that is the goal of this legislation.”

More:Cerabino: Looking for ‘socialism’ in Florida? It’s in the water. Ask Nestle.

Under the bill, state education leaders would meet every year to approve a list of degree programs that would be fully funded for scholarships and tuition-assistance grants. 

“In determining which programs will be included on a list, the Board of Governors and the State Board of Education shall consider national, state, and regional industry demand for certificate holders and graduates of such degree programs,” the bill says.

“For each certificate and degree program listed, the Board of Governors and the State Board of Education must identify occupations, current job openings, estimates of job growth, and employment wages.”

Students in degree programs that don’t make the approved list of employable majors would receive a reduced amount of financial support.

Finding your way in life

There’s a big problem with this view of higher education. 

For starters, it defines down the larger purpose of higher education itself. This approach distills higher education to a jobs-training program, which is a narrow, self-limiting view of what college can be at its best.

Most teenagers don’t know where they will end up in the job world when they graduate high school, or they think they do, and then learn about themselves along the way.

More:Cerabino: That mail-in ballot for the Florida governor’s race next year? It might not be in the mail

That’s not a problem. College is a chance for them to find their way. To expand the universe of their minds, to make them more informed citizens, to expose them to the breadth of the human experience and allow them to consider their place in it. 

It can be so much more than a march toward your first cubicle.

A college degree is often a starting point, not an end point, to a professional career. A guidance counselor at the University of Florida once told me that English is the most common undergraduate degree for students enrolled in UF’s medical school.

Forcing a student into a tech major when he or she really just wants to study history, or literature or art isn’t doing anybody a favor, including taxpayers.

That’s because measuring success by college major isn’t only limiting, but it’s often dead wrong.

Business moguls studied humanities

Here’s a short list of successful people who went on to become highly employable, despite earning college degrees that the state of Florida would probably not fund completely if this bill passes.

Ken Chenault, the former CEO of American Express, got his undergraduate degree in history. So did Bryan Moynihan, the CEO of Bank of America; Sam Palmisano, the former CEO of IBM; and A.G. Lafly, the former CEO at Proctor & Gamble.

More:Cerabino: Rush Limbaugh’s death makes me miss the old WJNO, and talk radio built for South Florida

The founder of PayPal, Peter Thiel, was a philosophy major in college. So was hedge fund manager George Soros; Wall Street corporate raider Carl Icahn; Sheila Bair, the former chairwoman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.; and Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, who also doubled in medieval history. 

Students who got undergraduate degrees in English include U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.

Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner had a double major in English and theater.

“Literature is unbelievably helpful, because no matter what business you are in, you are dealing with interpersonal relationships,” Eisner said in a USA Today interview 20 years ago. “It gives you an appreciation of what makes people tick.”

More:Cerabino: COVID closeness can ruin an engagement. Just ask star reggaeton singer Nicky Jam.

Dr. Harold Varmus, a scientist who became the director of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, won the Nobel Prize in 1989 for his discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral cancer-causing oncogenes. 

Varmus studied medicine after getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English.

What these people have shown is that there often isn’t a straight line to success. And along the way, education is never wasted.

The state’s mission should be to support that journey, wherever it leads, rather than finding new ways to put up roadblocks or push students off their paths and, ultimately, out of school. 

fcerabino@pbpost.com

@FranklyFlorida