Introduction
The article discusses how the legislative system of Florida allowed three state universities to increase their fees and tuition over several years.
This move was welcomed by Bernard Machen, the University of Florida president since it would help in improving the academic profile of the universities and in combating the high student to faculty ratio, as new staff would be hired (Fisher, 2007). Mr. Crist’s, the Florida governor threatened to veto the bill as he claimed this would burden the students and their families.
Education System
An open system allows interaction between the environment and the internal elements (Lunenburg and Ornstein, 2011). Florida has an open system of education and the key players involved in running the universities are the statewide governing board, the legislature and the local board of trustees.
Conflict rose over the role of each of the above players, necessitating the formation of a new board of governors to oversee the running of universities and curtail political interference in colleges (Fisher, 2007).
The Board of governors has experienced some obstacles from the local board of trustees and lawmakers who are trying to maintain the autonomy they had prior to its creation. However, the board got a reprieve when a court outlined its powers in early 2007, thus reducing the power struggle between it, the legislature and state board of education (Fisher, 2007).
The board supports the increment of tuition fees as Florida averagely charges $3,336 for four years in the university, making it one of the cheapest states in America (Fisher, 2007). These low charges have burdened the education system and lowered the quality of education since it is impossible for universities to hire new staff to cater for the needs of all the students.
Although the board has been making small strides, it has not been aggressive enough to spearhead changes in the Florida system. However, the board has been particularly vocal on the issue of fee increment and has vowed to come up with measures to counter Mr. Crist’s veto.
Florida has a hybrid system of education since no single centralized system is in charge of higher education but instead, there are various autonomous stakeholders. This hybrid system has been criticized by some stakeholders who perceive the board as being too weak to push its agenda, as well as accusing it of interfering with the university operations.
Goals of the System
The board of governors is supposed to set the goals for the system. Some overt goals the system is trying to achieve is ensuring the latest legislation voted in by the senate aimed at increasing the tuition and fees in the three universities goes through (Fisher, 2007).
This extra money will help in hiring more faculty staff, reducing the high student to faculty ratio. The board intends to undertake several measures to counter Mr. Crist’s refusal including challenging him in court or freezing enrollment.
Although 14 members out of the 17 in the board were appointed by Bush and were against its creation, the board aims at minimizing internal conflicts and reforming the education system by taking over leadership roles in the education sector. One such problem is tackling the longstanding personnel and financial problems that Florida A&M University, a black public college faces (Fisher, 2007).
The latent goals that the system wants to achieve include building a new kind of public universities that offer bachelors degrees, instead of the previous ones that focused more on carrying out expensive research (Fisher, 2007). The board also aims at increasing the tuition fees across the state universities since the current amount is not sufficient to support the student needs.
Implications
If the tuition fee is raised, the students and their families will dig deeper into their pockets to cater for university education. However, the increment will help in reducing the student to faculty ratio since the universities will be in a position to hire more staff.
Florida will ease the congestion in the current universities by building more universities that offer undergraduate education. However, this can only be achieved if all the stakeholders minimize conflicts and play their expected roles. More so, the board of governor should make sure that all the laid down goals are achieved.
References
Fisher, K. (2007). Florida’s problems governing its universities may be over. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53 (43), 15-16.
Lunenburg, F., & Ornstein, A. (2011). Educational administration: concepts and practices. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning.