Screw the kids — some Florida priorities are very well defined
Al’s
Loupe
Screw
the kids — some Florida priorities are very well defined
By
Alvaro F. Fernandez Read Spanish Version
alfernandez@the-beach.net
All
you have to do is read the newspapers every morning. I am beginning
to ask myself if it’s me. Am I wrong? Do I view priorities
differently than so many people I read about? Have we really reached
that point where the laws are really those of the jungle? You tell
me…
University
of Florida football coach Urban Meyer earned almost $3.5 million last
year. His team won a national championship — its second in the past
three years. It is expected that Meyer will become the highest paid
(probably in the $4.5 million range) college football coach in the
country by the time September rolls around. He is, I believe, the
highest paid state employee — a football coach.
Also
expecting a raise this year are Florida college students. With the
state economy in the tank, legislators and Governor Charlie Crist are
looking for solutions to money problems. And when it comes to the
education of our children, the biggest burden will fall on them.
There is currently a bill in the Florida legislature which would
allow state universities to increase their tuitions by 15 percent
each year until we catch up to other states. College tuition in
Florida, we are told, is one of the lowest in the country. This past
year tuition was raised 15 percent.
Here
in South Florida, Florida International University (FIU) President
Modesto Maidique gets paid more than $500,000 a year. He recently
announced his retirement. His plans, though, call for him to remain
at FIU as its highest paid professor of management in the business
school and head of a leadership center. His compensation will be the
same as what he was paid as president of the school. Give him credit,
though, Maidique did show some loyalty. Not to his students, mind
you, but to two of his top executives. Each should receive close to
$350,000 per year for the next three years.
These
salaries come with paid sabbaticals for Maidique and his provost,
Ronald Berkman. Sweet… if you can get it. By the way, this is the
same Mr. Maidique who hired former Speaker of the Florida House Marco
Rubio on a part
time
basis to the tune of $60,000 a year. We’re still trying to find out
what function Mr. Rubio fulfills. Although on my blog I recently
reported that he would be lecturing on “public
corruption and the need for reform.”
I wonder if he plans to use himself as the example, and that’s why
the need for reform…
On
another front, I recently read in the Fort Myers News-Press that at
Florida Gulf Coast University “56 percent of students used credit
cards to pay a portion or all their tuition and housing bills.” At
nearby Edison State College, 25 percent of students did the same.
Imagine what those kids will owe when they are finished with school.
Add the interest rate to that: an average of 14 percent or higher for
most college student credit cards, the News-Press reported.
Now
I ask you, have you ever heard a politician trying to get elected or
reelected speak out against kids? They are always referenced when any
politician says he plans to do something worthwhile; the reason we
should elect him or her… for our future generations. Bullshit!
If
we care so much about our kids, why is it that we plan to raise their
yearly college tuition to the point of breaking them financially for
years to come? And the sad part is that there is
money available to alleviate what some of these kids have to go
through. But a majority of legislators in Tallahassee dare not touch
that money.
Examples?
you say. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush cut corporate taxes, and
taxes on stocks and bonds for the wealthiest
Floridians, to the tune
of more than $20 billion — lost revenue for the state — during his
eight years in office.
There’s
also Florida’s sales tax exemptions. That’s right, and I’ve
said this before, this state, which relies on its sales tax to pay
for its services, exempts billions of dollars a year from products
and services. What products and services? Doggie manicures are
exempted. (I wonder: do dogs from financially-strapped Miami
neighborhoods like East Little Havana and Overtown, for example,
spend their Saturday afternoons in Doggie beauty parlors?) The sale
of racing dog food is also exempted — but not domestic dog or cat
food. Bottled water — exempted. The list goes on. Noteworthy… the
exemptions are usually for services and products that are
unaffordable to most anyone with a modest or low income. Makes you
wonder, doesn’t it?
Look,
I graduated from the University of Florida. I root for the Gators.
And I love the fact that Florida has probably the finest, young
college football coach in the country in Urban Meyer. I also know
that his salary is mostly paid by alumni contributions. But I can’t
fathom how that alumni is willing to donate millions just to keep a
football coach, while thousands of kids have to struggle so that they
may study. And that’s because, we are told, Florida happens to be
in a hell of a financial bind — except when you are a national
championship coach, or a college president and his cronies, or even a
termed out former speaker of the house whose performance left much to
be desired.
The
dictionary defines priority as “precedence, especially established
by order of importance or urgency.” I guess it comes down to “get
yours before somebody else gets it. And, by the way, screw the kids!”
