Have we doomed the next generation?

Tomorrow my daughter takes the ACT.  It is paid for by the State of Colorado.  The state pays for all high school juniors in Colorado to take the exam.  The rest of the students at the school are on a delayed start to give the juniors a quiet testing environment.  The kids are given free pizza for lunch after the exam.  As a parent (and general member of the public) I truly appreciate this commitment to show our kids that their future is important and it matters to us.

Except if they want to go to school in Florida.  In what can only be described as a dumbass move, the University of Florida has shut down the computer science department.  Not only have they shut down the computer science department, they have increased funding to athletics by almost the same amount “saved” by that useless computer science department.  How’s that for a big fat FU from UF?

And just for some icing on the cake, the state of Florida has a new university on the horizon, Florida Polytechnic University.  Two days prior to the announced cuts at University of Florida, the governor said :

“At a time when the number of graduates of Florida’s universities in the STEM [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] fields is not projected to meet workforce needs, the establishment of Florida Polytechnic University will help us move the needle in the right direction.”

The Associated Press recently published a great read about how many unemployed and underemployed recent grads we have.  There are actually more college educated bartenders than there are chemists.  And yes for the smart-asses, bartending is sorta like mixing chemicals in a lab.

So why bother with college anyway, right?  We only want the jocks with decent test scores.  Who needs an educated workforce?

Please comment.  I want to hear what others have to say.  I will follow-up with another post about more of my opinion on educating our kids.