Governing Florida's universities: a glimmer of hope?

Ever since Jeb! Bush ruined Florida's system of higher education by trashing the old system, replacing the centralized Board of Regents with individual -- and gubernatorially-appointed -- Boards of Trustees at each of the 11 universities (a similar system was imposed on the 28 community colleges) and a central -- but weakened -- Board of Governors also appointed by the Governor, the state has seen increasingly dysfunctional university governance, a uptick in presidents chosen for their political savvy rather than their academic résumés, and a plunge in rankings when compared with universities outside Florida.

Finally, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel. State Sen. Lisa Carlton (R-Sarasota) has introduced legislation that could return control to the Legislature, which by definition should have a better understanding of education than the governor.

The Senate Pre-K-12 Education Committee voted unanimously for a bill that would ask voters in November to give budget authority over the state's 11 universities to the Legislature, stripping it from the Board of Governors. Senate sponsor Lisa Carlton said lawmakers should control the debate over how to set tuition rates, not "some appointed board outside of this building."

Carlton ... said that every dollar increase in tuition requires an equal increase in two state-subsidized programs -- the Pre-Paid College Tuition Program and the Bright Futures scholarships. With every tuition increase, she said, the Legislature must come up with more money to pay for the programs, and more students could be priced out of going to college.

Seems to make sense, doesn't it? Well, as you might imagine, ol' Jeb! isn't happy about it:

But Gov. Jeb Bush told The Miami Herald he opposes the measure because he believes that electing an education commissioner will weaken the power of the governor, politicize education and give the Legislature less control over education policy. His view is expressed by the Foundation for Florida's Future, he wrote in an e-mail, referring to the non-profit education reform advocacy group he started.

The group's director, Patricia Levesque, told the committee Wednesday that "there should be a vocal advocate for education in the state of Florida. We just believe it should be the governor."

Oh. My. Fucking. God. (I keep saying that because I can't believe the crap Republicans sling these days.) Weakening the power of the governor, fine -- I have no problem with that. But the idea that an elected education commissioner would inject more politics into education is complete crap.

I can't fathom a more politicized structure than we have now. Thanks to Jeb!, we went from about a dozen or so gubernatorial appointees related to universities to well over 100, and when you add in the community colleges the number approaches 200. I have worked for two state universities and one community college. I have seen firsthand the effect that the political appointees have had on the institutions. The boards today are stacked with Republicans, largely people who gave large amounts of money, or raised large amounts of money, for campaigns for people named Bush, and most of them don't have a fucking clue about how to run an educational institution. As for the Legislature having less control over policy -- when they take over governance as opposed to the current situation -- how the high holy fuck is that even possible?!?

"There should be a vocal advocate for education in the state of Florida," says Levesque. And it should be the governor, she adds. Sure. I agree. Damn straight our governor ought to be a vocal advocate for education. But you can be a "vocal advocate" for universities without governing them. Hell, I'm a vocal advocate for Florida's universities, and I don't govern them -- nor would I want to. Because I'm not qualified.

Kind of like the current Boards of Trustees. Unqualified.

I think the Legislature might actually Get It and this proposed constitutional amendment has a good chance of getting on the ballot. Check out this little exchange:

The committee also heard criticism of the plan from State University System Chancellor Mark Rosenberg, who said that a third revamp of the university system in 10 years would continue to diminish the quality of the education that university students receive.

"It will make our education system weaker, not stronger," he said. "It will further erode our state credibility in national educations circles" and make it more difficult to attract faculty.

He said that higher education needs to rely on both tuition and state funding and "if we can get more state support, we don't need to raise tuition."

Rosenberg's comments irritated Sen. Don Gaetz, chairman of the committee. He asked Rosenberg why he wants to keep the current system if it's so bad -- "a system by the way which you just indicted, by saying it's not giving Florida students the quality education -- which is on your watch, by the way."

Ooooh, burrrrn.

I'd like to invite Jeb! -- and Rosenberg and Levesque, while I'm at it -- to kindly fuck off. Haven't you already done enough to destroy Florida? Seriously, shut the hell up and go crawl in a hole somewhere, you miserable cretin. You, Jeb!, are history. Go make your money and let Florida clean up your mess without interfering. Thanks in advance.

And thanks to the Legislature, or at least the Senate education committee, for taking steps to clean up that mess. Better late than never.