Recent editorials from Florida newspapers:
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Sept. 18
The Gainesville Sun on public schools:
The University of Florida’s rise in the national rankings didn’t happen by accident.
UF moved up to No. 8 among public universities in the recent U.S. News and World Report rankings, after last year cracking the top 10 for the first time by placing ninth.
UF has worked for decades on efforts to rank among the country’s top universities. It got a huge boost in recent years with additional state funding, which helped such efforts as a hiring push that is starting to reduce its student-faculty ratio.
Unfortunately Florida’s public schools haven’t fared as well when it comes to funding or rankings. While U.S. News placed Florida’s higher education system in the top spot in the country in rankings earlier this year, Florida’s pre-K through grade 12 education system was ranked just 40th among states.
For all Floridians to have the best chance to succeed, the state must have stronger public schools to match the rising reputations of its colleges and universities. Not only will that better prepare Florida students for UF and other state universities with increasingly difficult academic standards, it will help UF recruit more top-notch faculty.
UF’s strategic development plan is based on the premise that conditions in the city it calls home help attract people to the university. Employees moving here and other residents want high-quality local schools, yet Alachua County Public Schools - like other public schools in Florida - lack adequate support from the state.
Thankfully Alachua County voters have taken it upon themselves to better fund our schools. They approved the one mill initiative three times to help fill in funding gaps, and this fall will be considering measures to pay for school facilities improvements as well as early childhood education and other programs for children.
But the
Florida Legislature[1] needs to do better than the 47 cents per student increase in K-12 funding that it passed this year. State lawmakers have been focused in recent years on passing testing requirements and other mandates that have a debatable effect on the quality of schools, while making it harder to attract and retain teachers.Democratic gubernatorial candidate and Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum has a plan for a $1 billion funding boost for schools. The money would raise teacher pay to a minimum $50,000 starting salary and increase spending on such things as early childhood education and vocational programs.
Republican gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis has provided scant details of his education plans. But his campaign has been critical of Gillum’s proposal to increase the corporate tax rate to 7.75 percent from 5.5 percent to generate the $1 billion.
Quality corporations, like top universities, benefit from a better educated populace. A first-rate education system from pre-K to Ph.D. will attract and create the businesses needed to diversify...