.jpg)
Courtesy photo for Headline Surfer / Gov. Rick Scott is shown in this shot from his press office making his pitch Nov. 26 for the state's colleges to offer a $10,000 bachelor's degree program.DAYTONA BEACH -- Gov. Rick Scott's challenge to the state's colleges to cap bachelor's degrees at $10,000 drew mixed reviews. Daytona State College officials said they supported the proposal, but media outlets like the Orlando Sentinel have derided it as a gimmick.
The governor said he was issuing a challenge to our state colleges to find innovative ways to offer a bachelor’s degree at a cost of just $10,000 in fields that will provide graduates with a great opportunity for employment.
"As a former community college student myself, I know how important it is for us to keep costs low while increasing skills training and career readiness for students," Scott said in November at Valencia College, with Carol Eaton, president of Daytona State College, and other presidents from Valencia, Santa Fe, College of Central Florida, Seminole State and Broward College, standing by his side in a show of support
<>
Carol Eaton, president of Daytona State College, shown here, is on board with the governor's challenge for a $10,000 bachelor's degree, but with certain's conditions met, mainly, requiring students to come in with credits earned in high school an to finish in three years.
Eaton said Daytona State is "pleased to participate in the pilot program to offer affordable workforce baccalaureate degrees to Florida’s citizens, adding her administration's focus will be to "attract highly motivated students through a proposed ‘Fast-Track Baccalaureate Program’ that offers a three-year path through any of the college’s bachelor’s degrees for $10,000."
DSC photo / Students in a photo class at Daytona State College go over photography skills. Very few students graduate in accellerated degree program, but those enrolled there could earn a degree capped at $10,000.
Eaton added, "We will provide this new pathway designed for students graduating from high school in spring 2013 and entering Daytona State in fall 2013, providing they have accumulated a minimum of 15 credit hours through dual enrollment, AP or International Baccalaureate programs; that they maintain continuous full-time enrollment; and that they graduate within three years.”
That doesn't jive with Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab, who wrote in a recent column, that in order for DSC to provide a $10,000 bachelor's education, they'd have a year less than the traditional four years.
"Few students would actually qualify," Kassab said in a recent column. "After all, most colleges' bread and butter are students who can't attend full-time because they need to work or care for a family."
The reality critics of the governor's $10,000 bachelor's degree cap point to is the very difficulty Daytona State and the other former community colleges encounter.
And that is finding enough top-calibre students to make such a cost-contained degree worthwhile, considering the vast majority of these top-notch students are recruited by the state's top public and private universities and even out of state with partial- and even full-scholarships by some of the best college institutions such as the Ivy League schools.
Countdown Top 10 Florida Stories of 2012: