Pictured Above: Geography professor Chris Meindl has a bachelor’s degree in social science, two master’s degrees in history and geography and a doctorate in geography, according to the USF College of Arts and Sciences website.
Courtesy of USF College of Arts and Sciences
By Chris Meindl
It appears that Florida Senate Bill 86, which originally called for reducing Bright Futures scholarship payments to students who major in subjects that Republican legislators do not like, has encountered an avalanche of criticism.
Rather than drop this bad bill, Sen. Dennis Baxley is now walking it back a little bit. I understand that it is embarrassing to believe one thing and then be confronted by an army of people who think differently.
Instead of cutting funding for students in particular majors (the bad idea they dropped), Sen. Baxley and his supporters now insist that the state maintain a useless database that claims graduates earn more money in some degrees than in others. As if people make decisions about what to major in based entirely on job outlook and salary.
As if college is merely job training.
As if most 18-year-old students enter college knowing what they want to do with the rest of their lives.
Look, I get it, there is a reason for the cliche “starving artist”; some people like what they like, and they don’t easily “change their dreams” to fit the employment reality around them. But that is true for lots of people.
The problem is not that there are “useless” college majors; there is no such thing. The problem is that Thomas Jefferson is wrong: all men (and women) are not created equal. But Sen. Baxley and his Republican colleagues still subscribe to this nonsense.
Why should the legislature care if a college graduate later decided to work as an Uber driver (probably temporarily) rather than collect unemployment? Why should they care if somebody wants to major in theater arts, give acting a go, and then end up working in a bank? I thought the American way is having the freedom to follow one’s dreams?
Sen. Baxley and his Republican colleagues are wrong to think that any college degree is a waste of time or state resources.
Let me give you an analogy. I used to think that the end of a blow-out ball game (you pick the sport) was a waste of time – “garbage time” as many people call it. But I heard one announcer near the end of one such lopsided game recently state that: “There are no wasted minutes in the NBA. These minutes at the end of games that are already decided are opportunities for other (bench/back-up) players to develop or show what they can do.” And so it is with college degrees.
There are no useless majors because every college graduate learns something about how the world works and how to think critically and ask questions about what they do not understand.
The fact that Sen. Baxley will not simply drop his proposed solution demonstrates that he believes a problem exists.
But he has not shown us evidence of a problem.
Frankly, I think it is a figment of one’s ideological imagination to believe that college graduates must always be employed in a field related to their major. Most college graduates use the thinking skills we teach them to “find their way.” Sen. Baxley should know better.
I note from his Wikipedia page (but I have not confirmed this independently) that he earned degrees in sociology and psychology – and then went back to junior college to learn how to be a funeral director.
In other words, he used his hard-earned bachelor’s degree and the freedom to change course to become a successful businessman. What’s wrong with that? And what’s the problem he is trying to solve now?
Dr. Chris Meindl is a professor of geography and director of the Florida Studies program at USF St. Petersburg.
