The Tampa Tribune
Published: July 13, 2008
With each announced departure of a high-profile Florida university professor for Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Louisiana, Virginia, Ohio, and so on, we can see the longstanding plans for a high-technology Interstate 4 corridor disintegrate at our feet.
Just a few years ago, we were going to enter the 21st century with a roar. We were going to attract top researchers while upgrading our higher educational system. We would train Florida kids to become the entrepreneurs in and employees for biotechnology, computers, modern materials, space, and other forward-looking industries lining up from St. Petersburg to Melbourne.
No longer would Tampa be the back office of the nation: We were going to move beyond the boom and bust of tourism and construction and challenge Massachusetts, California, and North Carolina.
But no more.
Times are hard. Tourism and construction are bust, and the Legislature has made it quite clear that we don't have the money to waste on education. Especially not higher education. So we suffer from constrictions big (fewer students are being admitted and those who do get in face larger classes) and small (cutbacks in computer resources and support limit research and teaching). And then there is the institutional atrophy induced by program cutbacks and personnel layoffs.
Other states are protecting higher education as much as possible. Part of their motivation is that rebuilding a higher education system is a protracted business, so they'd rather at least preserve what they have. And part of the motivation is that higher education is an economic engine.
But Florida state government is above such considerations. Our higher educational systems have not only endured disproportionately deep cuts over the years, but have had funds raided for earmarks. Recently, the funds for the Centers of Excellence - which were supposed to go to high- priority research and development projects - were diverted to projects with superior political connections. No wonder professors who had developed more useful projects are thinking about going somewhere else.
We are reaching the point when we have to ask of parents, businessmen, workers, and all citizens of Florida whether we want to have a higher educational system capable of supporting a 21st century economy.
We don't have to. After all, if we are content to have Tampa remain the back office of the nation, if we are content to rely on the cheap jobs of tourism and watch our best and brightest kids leave for universities in other states - perhaps Texas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Louisiana, Virginia, Ohio and so on - never to return, then we can let things continue as they are.
It won't be long for the rest of the nation to leave us behind. It is already happening.
