WHERE WE STAND:
Despite setbacks, lawmakers must persevere in upgrading higher education in Florida.
“Nice guys finish last” is a rough bit of folk wisdom attributed to legendary baseball manager Leo Durocher. But it could describe what happened in Florida politics this past week.
Visiting an Orlando Catholic school on Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott signed into law House Speaker Richard Corcoran’s No. 1 legislative priority, a sweeping 278-page education bill that included controversial provisions to benefit charter schools. Scott and Corcoran waged a bitter war of words for months over the governor’s top priority, funding for tourism marketing and economic development, before they came to a compromise in this month’s special session that included the dollars that Scott demanded.
Just a day before signing Corcoran’s bill, Scott vetoed one of Senate President Joe Negron’s priorities, an even-longer bill addressing higher education that increased funding for universities and scholarships. Negron had supported the governor’s position on economic development, and refrained from attacking him over other policy disagreements. That civility didn’t bring him the policy victory he so coveted on higher education.
A cruel blow
Scott’s veto was a cruel blow, not just to Negron. The bill would have established higher state funding levels for universities to invest in top faculty and research. It would have doubled need-based aid and Bright Futures scholarships for top students. It was a vehicle for Negron’s laudable goal of elevating Florida’s universities to elite status nationally.
The scholarship boosts and some other funding increases were included in the next state budget, a separate piece of legislation, so they will be in effect in the fiscal year that begins July 1, even with the governor’s veto. If they are to last more than a year, legislators will need to come back and approve them again in 2018. That’s far from certain.
But as Scott pointed out in vetoing the bill, it also included a $25 million funding cut for state colleges. They’re already a bargain for students and taxpayers; they should have been spared the ax. The bill also would have slapped an arbitrary cap on colleges issuing four-year degrees.
A good game plan
The governor’s veto message left legislators with a good game plan for next year: “I urge the Legislature to pass legislation that revisits these issues and expands Bright Futures Scholarships permanently while recognizing the importance of both our state colleges and universities in the 2018 Legislative Session.” In short, a higher education bill 2.0 needn’t pit colleges against universities.
We’d add another key condition. When legislators take another crack at rewriting higher education policy, they need to do it in open hearings.
It’s notable that the First Amendment Foundation, the state’s leading open-government watchdog, had called on Scott to veto the higher education bill — not because of its cuts for colleges, but because it was finalized in private meetings. “The secretive process precluded any opportunity for public oversight or input on major changes to postsecondary education policy,” wrote foundation President Barbara Petersen. She had urged Scott to veto Corcoran’s education bill for the same reason.
Economic development — the right way
In a characteristically measured response to the governor’s veto, Negron pointed out that higher education in Florida is the state’s “primary economic engine to drive vibrant, sustainable economic development and growth in high-paying jobs.” We couldn’t agree more.
A better-educated work force will attract higher-paying employers, encourage the ones already here to invest and expand, and do more to diversify Florida’s low-wage economy. In the long run, a nationally competitive university system will be more effective in strengthening the state’s economy than the millions of dollars the Legislature handed the governor in the special session for economic development and tourism marketing.
Reviving the higher education bill, and passing it the right way next time, would be a belated victory for a nice guy. More important, it would be a win for Florida.