Poor tiny New College in Sarasota, a well respected liberal arts public school, is in our avaricious governor's sights. At one point I thought maybe D1 would attend, but that ended comically.
I always had an aversion to getting ripped off by fancy school tuition, although I would have paid it if that's what the Ds wanted. When D1 was a high school junior, I started talking to her about New College -- very competitive to be admitted, with 100% grad school admission rates. It appealed to me -- sort of like an Amherst in Sarasota, but she would attend for free, between Bright Futures and the Prepaid Plan.
We took a trip there -- stayed at a hotel in Sarasota and had a lovely evening on St. Armand's Key. We ate dinner and sat on the Gulf beach as sharks swarmed, eating their dinner. It was lovely there, and I figured it was a great college place for her -- smart kids -- just a 4 hour drive away. The next day we drove to campus.
We were greeted by a young man wearing a "Ban Reality TV" sweatshirt. One of the booths had hippie looking girls under a banner that read "Women Against Ladies." After literally 10 minutes of walking around, D1 turned to me and said "We out, Dad. I LOVE reality TV and want to be a lady. This is 100% NOT my scene." And so we left for Miami.
She, and later her sister, did great at UF, and so my aversion to paying absurd tuition was honored. Instead, I invested the money into stock accounts for them -- D1 used some money as a down payment for her and Joey's house, and D2 plans to do the same.
I think it's great when people who can afford it happily pay high tuition, but to me it's a huge racket -- I look at all the successful friends of the Ds who attended public colleges and I just don't see a reason to pay 6 figures for a fancy degree. But back to New College.
Our governor, himself Ivy League elite educated, is following Trump's fake populist playbook and going after New College. He's installing scary righty administrators vowing to turn the place into a Hillsdale of Florida.
Probably a majority of New College kids are LGBTQ (RSTUV -- I add letters for coming permutations), and will feel as welcome there as a turd in a swimming pool. It's terrible for them.
Maybe these kind of Michael Corleone stunts will backfire against him. I guess we'll find out in the coming years as he runs for POTUS. He is a nasty guy -- typically that hurts. Even Nixon could be charming -- the governor can't.
His culture war is extending to the flagship university, too. He pushed for UF to hire the Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse as president. The fellow only ran small Christian schools in addition to being a senator from a sparsely populated state -- one known only for Warren Buffet and a football team that's even more a bunch of has beens than my beloved Canes. I have to think that stunt will cost UF in national rankings -- especially as elite faculty start to flee for more welcoming places.
I'm a centrist Democrat, and know politics are a pendulum. But lately things sure are swinging VERY far to the right -- and taking out sweet little colleges like New College -- that ain't right. Maybe they'll resist, somehow. I sure hope they can.
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