Rick Scott Wants the Government to Choose Your College Major -- No More Anthropologists

• The best way to encourage more students to enter degree programs in the "STEM" subjects is to ensure a quality education in the elementary, middle, and high school levels.  If the students in the Florida public school system are not provided with a quality cirriculum taught by professional and highly qualified educators, they are less likely to realize their potential for these type of degrees.  However, we cannot begin to expect students in the public school system of Florida to receive such an education when our beloved Rick Scott is constantly cutting the education budget and attacking the wages of the school system employees.  The governer, representatives, senators, and replublians voice the opinion that school district employees are overpaid.  The media goes out of there way to support this opinion.  Tell me, do you think $38,000.00 a year is to much to pay your child's teacher?  That was the salary before the required 3% FRS contribution kicked in.  Now the starting salary for the person teaching your child is $36,860.00.

• I have two of those "worthless degrees," and as I see it, you're the one commenting on my post.

• On the one hand, this is a fairly dick way of going about this sort of plan. On the other hand, this country is DYING for some more engineers and scientists. How else can we get more engineers and scientists?  I am not a fan of Rick Scott, not even the slightest bit, but on this one issue, I understand where he's coming from, and what other way can he encourage the universities to put out more of one thing than the other than by moving around funding? EDIT: And when I say "scientists", what I actually mean is scientists from the fields before the last two convergent stages in this image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/04/Partial_ordering_of_the_sciences_Balaban_Klein_Scientometrics2006_615-637.svg Anthropologists are wonderful, but we also need bridges, kind of a lot. EDIT 2: On the other hand, here is someone explaining why my point of view is garbage: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2011/10/michael_m_crow_president_of_arizona_state_university_explains_wh.html On the one hand, I could potentially dismiss him as the wrong person to defend this (What's that? A university president defending universities?), but instead I'd like to imagine he's more qualified to talk about this than I am, so I'll sit back and be quiet a bit.

• Someone else mentioned Bill Gates, too.  You have a better chance of winning the Powerball lottery (roughly 1:195MM) than being either of these two people.  It does, however, seem typically American to hold up one or two people and use them as the reason, the shining example, of why the conventional wisdom doesn't work. None of us posting on this comments board will ever see a sliver of what those men saw.

• I don't think government should be telling anyone what to major in, but at some point common sense is going to have to kick in - we are graduating way too many law students and other worthless degrees, that will never help anyone find employment. Heck, one school had it's unemployed law students sue it (how's that for gratitude)?

• Maybe you should learn how to spell before you decide you're better than other people. 

• They can't drop taxes because they are in debt. You can start wondering where the tax drops are once there is a budget surplus.

• If being fully evolved means coming to the belief system that being a homo and killing babys is "ok", I'll stay right where I am, thanks.

• I think that they should come up with a "Screw the Taxpayer" degree and Scott could be the professor

• Perhaps spending tax dollars on people who get useless degrees (psychology comes to mind) isn't money well spent? Obama always talks about "investing" in the future. Why "invest" our money on worthless degrees?

• "The school's job isn't to be getting jobs for the kids. The problem is that schools have been selling themselves more and more as job-training centers, even though that's not what most of them were founded for and that's not what most of them are really able to do." this is a debatable point as far as if the schools exist to get their students a job. one could pretty easily say that the sole existence of these institutions are in fact to educate someone and make them more marketable in the professional world. regardless, what is not debatable is that the government subsidizes education BECAUSE they see it as a job training center. this is the reason why college is subsidized by the government, and why they spend billions of dollars annually on higher education.

• I would put it this way: he's against these people because they can recognize a neanderthal when they see one. Who knows?  Maybe they'll go out and dig him up a few friends.

• Yes this guy might suck, but we do in fact need more Americans getting useful degrees. If you haven't noticed in this economy, liberal arts grads are mostly bar tenders and delivery boys. I think out of about ten psychology grads I know, not one has a real job that in any way uses that expensive degree.

• Hey Rick, know what other country tells students what they can and cannot major in? Communist Cuba!  Guess how I know?  I'm a liberal arts (more specifically: History) major at a Florida university!

• You know what else falls under the sciences? ANTHROPOLOGY. 

• I'm paying out of pocket for my college education right now. That money isn't coming from anyone but me and the job at which I work. So tell me again why I can't choose to major in a field I hope to have a career in someday? I'm paying for it, so why is it Scott's decision? By the way, USF Tampa's Anthropology Department has a 64% rate of anthro majors who have found jobs in that very field IN THIS STATE (FL) within a year of graduating. Yes, a lot of people major in impractical fields in college. Yes, some of those people do nothing with those degrees. But that isn't everyone. And there is absolutely no reason why I, or anyone else, should be forced into a field we do not enjoy WHEN WE'RE PAYING FOR OUR OWN DAMN TUITION. Also, this whole issue aside, why the hell would you ever support someone who is responsible for the largest case of medical fraud in our nation's history? HE STOLE MONEY FROM TAXPAYERS. The same "taxpayers" he says he's protecting by this whole college major garbage. He's a liar and thief. And YOU are the company you keep.

• When Bushie was thrown out of office, I had hoped we'd seen the last of the Golden Age of Anti-Intellectualism. Thanks to Dude, I stand corrected.

• Bill Gates another college drop out.   Though at least both of those guys attempted to go to college. By the way, what's up with that Mr. Miyagi head wrap?  Someone kerblunk you with a nerf football?

• Hey.  Don't knock the Fighting Woodcocks.  They got one hell of a Glee Team.

• And Danny, what degree did you get that prepared you to become a professional douche-bag? Something aquatic I am thinking...

• From Wikipedia: The undergraduate degree can be in any field, though most American lawyers hold bachelor's degrees in the humanities and social sciences.

• Haven't people figured out this guy is absolutely crazy?  What governor has ever singled out a profession or major and said the state doesn't need them?  What type of inviting business model for Florida is the Governor trying to create.  Come to our state and build a business, but not if it involves anything within the realm of anthropological research.  Archeaology, linquistics, biological anthropology (something his health care business surely utilized) ethnography, ethnology, The list can go on and on.  I don't this guy evolved enough to even comprehend how stupid he actually sounds when he opens his mouth.  What a dick!  And I mean that historically, presently and into the foreseeable future!

• Police departments and the FBI  need anthropologists.

• if you want corruption, Ask the county commission what they are going to spend the 3% of salaries they use to pay into public employees pensions.  (that is now paid for by the public employees). Did anyone see the 3% drop in taxes from that windfall?  where is the media on this? 

• jail for driving on suspended license?  yeah for 24 hours then you R ROR. no real penalty... for that or no insurance.

• Want a job?  lean LINUX, how many of the 99% are in liberal arts with huge debts and no hope of getting a job?  

• No where in there did he say he wants to pick peoples majors for them.  All he wants to do is put more money towards science, math and other technical degrees, which in today's society are more useful.  Take a look around the world and you'll see other countries like China blowing past our students in math and sciences.  This is an excellent strategy to keep us on pace with those countries.

• ...said the proud graduate of Buchanan High School....from St. Louis

• I've seen strategy applied in Ethiopia.  The government chooses your degree in return for several years of work in the field.  Guaranteed job after graduation.  What you get is a bunch of teachers who don't show up for work, and a bunch of doctors going back to school for computer science degrees.

•  In Brevard County, there are buried ancient human remains in the Windover subdivision Titusville; 160 paleo Indians from 9,000 years ago inside a peat bog. The oldest intact human brain ever (do you know what EVER MEANS RICK?) recovered was found in this bog. Artifacts etc. requiring the skills of geologists, archaeologists and (wait for it) anthropologists to study over the span of two decades. Those people learned their craft at (wait for it) Florida State.

•  Anthropologists and archaeologists from this state go back and forth to Central America, Italy, Greece, all the time; this fosters an image of Florida's educational system, one of excellence. But no, let us sit and listen to the idiot natterings of a criminally inclined religious zealot and do as he says. And dismantle academia step-wise to suit his thug-ignorant, narrow bandwith, inaccurate, insidiously evil cosmology. Next year he'll be back to cut more learning, until there is nothing but pug stupidity. After which it will make all the sense in the world to just shutter the buildings all and sell them to some other pornservative perversions: Jesus casinos or whatever they have in mind.

• Rick Scott needs a lesson in humility. This type of social engineering would not achieve the desired results. Students may not have the aptitude for whatever is picked for them and the world would be at a lost with good minds in the wrong fields of endeavor. if I am going to pay for my child's college education I want results for that child in their life work dreams not disappointment and frustration of being in the wrong field.

• lol, Rick Scott is an idiot, clearly corrupt as the day is long. total-privacy.se.tc

• Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies is the degree issued for lawyers, it still falls under the sciences.

• Not everybody is Steve Jobs.

• My waiter yesterday has an anthropology degree, I bet he agrees with you.  And wants to borrow $20. As I stated in my reply comment below, if you want a unemployable degree by all means get one.  On your own dime.  If you want to borrow money to go to school, it's an investment and you better have a plan of how your investment is going to pay for itself.  Getting a degree in a field where jobs are rare is not the wisest of investments.  Getting a degree in a field with a high salary, paying back that loan, and then using that salary to study the things that interest you... now THERE is a wise investment.

• I'd like to see a statistic on that in regards to science degree's.  Or did you just make up an opinion?  Every engineer I went to school with got a job... well... engineering.  The nurses my mother went to school with got jobs... nursing.  Most of the people I know who got Lib Arts degrees got jobs... in retail.  And complain that they can't afford their student loans...

• "You know, we don't need a lot more anthropologists in the state," Scott said in an interview on the Marc Bernier Show. "It's a great degree if people want to get it, but we don't need them here..." It's official, The Onion and GOP pol quotes now sound exactly the same.

• And a fluke.  The reality is that there are jobs out there to be had, in skilled fields, with employers begging for qualified applicants.  And yet there are protesters sitting in a park somewhere with a liberal arts degree they borrowed money to get complaining they can't get a job to pay back what they borrowed, and it's someone ELSE'S fault. Want a degree/education in liberal arts?  Great.  Pay for it.  Otherwise get a degree that will allow you to pay back the money you borrowed to get it. If a business applies for a loan they have to show a plan of how it will be invested in such a way as to pay it back, why not set the same rules for investing in your knowledge and skills?

• Science, engineering, and mathematics are all excellent, noble pursuits. If the student has made the choice to pursue a degree and base a career on them. The various anthropology studies are also very noble and useful and combines with science and engineering and math, they all contribute to the betterment of mankind.

• MOST people do not get jobs in their chosen field.  Rick Scott is simply being a typical moronic Republican.

• Steve Jobs was a college dropout.

• Each and every time a Republican opens his or her mouth, a pile of sh*t comes out.  Just watch any of the GOP/Teatard debates to find out.

• I'll take the Rick Scott Medicare 101 course. How to rip it off , pocket the money, and take the fifth 75 times.

• Sounds like a good idea to me- Scientists, Technologists, Engineers and Mathematicians tend to lean towards athiesm, maybe when they've all graduated they can give him an education.

• He is not a lawyer...but he might be a Nazi.

• My grandfather always said "Inside every conservative is a Fascist screaming to get out" Clearly Herr Scott is out.....the court said he violated the Florida constitution by privatizing the prisons. Given that FACT, why can't he be removed from office. I tell you in Florida if you are caught driving without a license...you will go to jail. Certainly this is 800% more serious. Jail this guy while he awaits trial.

• Ohhhh noooo you mean this guy wants people to become scientists, engineers and mathematicians.  Now how are people with those degrees going to help the world.  You guys are right this guy is crazy.

• Typical authoritarian conservative. They're all like that.

• He made the mistake of turning a personal opinion in to a political platform. I think it's a given that a lot of people go to college and major in impractical garbage. Most won't get a job in their chosen field, and they'll either suck it up and work elsewhere (effectively wasting the degree) or hop in to a protest group and lament their lack of employment.  Regardless, you don't turn that in to a political platform. 

• Typical authoritarian conservative.  They're all like that.

• Virgil...that is the most HILARIOUS comment I have read all day.  And right on point!  :)

• <em>Scott wants all that state money to go to the science, technology, engineering, and math fields -- known as "STEM" -- where the governor hopes people will follow in his footsteps by pursuing careers in medicare fraud.</em> Isn't Scott a lawyer?  Unless I missed the memo, lawyering ain't a science, technology, engineering or arithmetic pursuit...

• so he wants the government to tell us what to read, what to learn, how a woman controls her body, how much we must pay for hurricane insurance, who we can sue and for how much, and so much more... but his campaign promised to get the government out of our lives. I just looked up HYPROCRITE in the dictionary and right next to the word was a picture of Rick Scott.

• He's afraid that someone will find out that he is not evolved.

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