Plan proposes higher tuition for "low-demand" majors
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If your kids have a college major that some consider low-demand, should they have to pay more in tuition? Video by fox4now.com
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LEE COUNTY, Fla. - Maybe so if Governor Rick Scott decides it should be that way.
It's called "differentiated tuition."
Charging differentiated tuition is the most controversial recommendation coming from the Governor's Blue Ribbon Panel on Higher Education.
One of its members tells 4 In Your Corner a little supply and demand would benefit us all.
These Florida Gulf Coast University students are enjoying a day outside the classroom.
About half are studying for careers in science, technology, engineering and math.
Those are majors the Governor's panel says should cost students less.
This future civil engineer agrees.
'I feel it's a good major to get into because I feel that a lot of people go to college, sad to say, and probably don't even get the job field that they want to get into," says Brennan McAlary
And that's what the panel's chair Dale Brill says it's all about -- return on investment.
He says the taxpayer has a vested interest in students' futures.
'We can, indeed, get financial return on investment by looking at the major, the job, the wages, the income, how much they're able to spend, what choices they are now afforded because they have that income," says Brill.
Some of the other students here are majoring in communications and philosophy -- all majors that could cost more under the plan.
"Those classes are still essential to any students who's in school. Those classes are not nonsense," says student Ali Raad.
The panel just wants to get parents and students thinking more about college costs and their futures.
"The idea that the tax payer should fund four to six years for someone to go find themselves... all that has to take place, but not on the tax payers' dime," adds Brill.
The proposed less expensive majors would be those the state's Department of Economic Opportunity says are in high demand through 2018.
But it's important to note, these are simply recommendations.
No word if the Governor will act on them.
To view the report, copy and paste: http://www.slideshare.net/FLHigherEd
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