Florida is launching a new college completion initiative, joining a growing number of states seeking to streamline student entry into the workforce by encouraging them to graduate on time.
Republican Gov. Rick Scott announced the “Finish in Four, Save More” challenge, designed to help students save money and increase their earning potential by shortening their time in the classroom at his Degrees to Jobs Summit in May.
The state Board of Governors has set a goal of raising the four-year rate to 50 percent by 2025 and increase the six-year rate of 66 percent to 70 percent, after their most recent data demonstrated that just 44 percent of students attending 11 of Florida’s state universities graduated in four years.
Scott said that before he leaves office in 2018, he hopes to fully implement the statewide policy agenda that includes extending state scholarships through the summer, increasing financial literacy and internship opportunities and eliminating additional out-of-pocket costs like online course registration fees for students.
He signed into law the Education Access and Affordability initiative in April, a law he has said is part of his mission to increase tuition transparency, while incoming Florida Senate President Joe Negron has committed to giving state colleges and universities $1 billion more in performance-based funding during his tenure.
Noting that many students in Florida work to fund their studies, Negron, a Republican, has said he sees “Finish in Four, Save More” as realizing his goal of “reducing the impact these financial insecurities have on their ability to graduate in four years. We also want to increase opportunities for students who work throughout college to gain real world experience in their field of study that will improve their job prospects following graduation.”
Scott has promised to propose increasing the state’s Bright Future scholarship by $16.9 million in the next legislative session, despite lawmakers failing to reinstate the summer semester funding this year.
Chancellor Madeline Pumariega of the Florida College System, the equivalent of a state-funded junior college system, was a speaker at the summit and one of 31 of the state’s Department of Education officials to sign a letter committing to the “Finish in Four, Save More” challenge.
The Board of Governors said it is “pleased to accept your challenge to keep college education affordable and to build strategies that help our students graduate in four years.”
Pumariega told the Washington Examiner that the state-funded schools have already worked to realize many of the key goals of the agenda. Though the governor has claimed that online classes can cost as much as $100 more than traditional ones, Pumariega downplayed the fees, saying most institutions charge a nominal rate if they charge anything at all.
Pumariega said the implementation process for the governor’s challenge is “ongoing,” but that administrators are developing college completion awareness programs, improving articulation agreements between institutions to ensure students are taking only the courses they need to graduate and encouraging summer enrollment.
“From the federal standpoint, we want to see Pell grants offered year-round” so students do not “automatically take the summer off but they are able to stay focused on their studies,” said Pumariega, reflecting one of the major educational policy goals of the Obama administration.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, college completion is a national problem, as only 60 percent of students earn their bachelor’s degree and average cost of attendance has more than doubled over the past 30 years.
As earning power becomes increasingly dependent on educational attainment, at least 19 states have created college completion plans and a number of them, including Florida, have joined the national initiative Complete College America.
The chancellor said that although state colleges in Florida have boosted graduation and job placement rates, “we want to build upon that success and be a national model. But more importantly, we want students in Florida to have all the resources available to them to be able to finish in four.”
In June, the state university system launched Think Florida: A Higher Degree for Business, a campaign to “align degrees with job production, promote greater collaboration between universities and employers and ensure that the universities are responsive to the state workforce.”
McKinley Lewis, Scott’s deputy communications director, has said that the governor “believes our higher education system must be solely focused on preparing grads to get jobs in high-demand fields when they graduate,” in response to criticism by the United Faculty of Florida that the current pro-business approach is narrow-minded.
“The very premise of Rick Scott’s summit is problematic in that the mission of higher education is much more than just jobs,” UFF said in a statement, noting that it was not invited. “While obtaining a job after graduation is important, higher education is about developing educated, well-rounded citizens and future leaders who are able to communicate and write effectively, think critically and solve problems — skills that are also important criteria for those who do the hiring.
“If Gov. Scott is serious about improving higher education, then he needs to make sure that our university and college systems are funded properly, not relying on gimmicks such as one-size-fits-all performance funding.”
Pumariega said that while the higher education system in Florida has a financial incentive to participate in the state government’s proposals, she insisted that the agenda is “good policy and best practice. It all is aimed at student success.”
“Students go to college to get a job and have a great career, and the faster we can help them through I think the better it is for the student and their families, as well as the colleges, and universities and the state. Ultimately everyone benefits by ensuring that students coming to college have a pathway to complete.”
