https://www.collegesimply.com/colleges/rank/public-colleges/smallest-enrollment/ lists the smallest public colleges.
NCF is on page 4, larger than some community colleges (presumably in low population areas) and some of the Penn State and Pitt branch campuses, among others.
Quite a few, actually. Waste is not the word Iâd use.
Why is it a waste? What is being wasted?
There are limited public funds to support public higher education. Those funds should be used wisely to help the most number of students. The state is spending $250k per degree for a student there, five times what it is spending on students at other public colleges in Florida. It could help far more students at cheaper costs elsewhere.
Community colleges, tribal schools, and schools for the deaf and disabled serve special populations with difficult needs, often quite efficiently. This is a general purpose school.
But would changing it from its current niche offering to a different niche offering save any money, compared to closing it or merging it with another campus?
It does not seem like money is the main motivator for the changes.
I agree, the proposed changes are equally wasteful, it should be shut down/merged or repurposed. Perhaps as a school for the disabled, for example.
This is the first time I heard of community colleges as being specialty colleges for special populations with difficult needs.
Yes, they serve mostly non-traditional students, who often have responsibilities including childcare, eldercare, full-time employment, and financial insecurity.
My heart goes out to current NCF students. I assume many of them will be putting in transfer apps, and I hope that other colleges afford them compassion and benevolence when reading/acting on those apps. This situation is unprecedented, with the closest situation being when a college closes down and those students have to find another school. NCF hasnât technically closed, but for the many students who went there seeking exactly what NCF offers, it may as well have closed.
While community colleges do serve many non-traditional students, they also serve lots of traditional students immediately or shortly after they graduate from high school.
Also, many of the non-traditional students do eventually transfer to four year colleges, so it is not like their presence is unique to community colleges.
It is unlikely any community college anywhere is incurring education costs on the scale of NCF.
Where I live, the local community college is tuition free for all students, but I imagine instead of âloss,â they think of it as an investment.
It is an investment. And one the state could make available to more people by ceasing to instead subsidize a small group to a quarter of a million dollars each.
Unlike most other schools that stop offering majors or classes a student wants, NCF students are âin the systemâ in Florida. Their past work should easily transfer to other public schools and most private ones.
I donât feel sorry for NCF at all. When my kids were in a Florida public high school, theyâd never heard of NCF (I asked them and their friends if they were considering it. NO). No effort by the school to market itself at all. One of my kids was a theater/literature type and I thought an LAC could be a choice for her. Great test scores and grades in humanities, terrible in math. She had zero interest in this school that had zero interest in her.
I think NCF had about 900 students at the time and were still trying to grow. Now they have closer to 600. Not the right direction, and yet they seem to do nothing about it (the administration).
I also think they try to do too much, teach too many majors, try to serve too many specialties. If it were just an art school or just a great books school, maybe it could survive with only 600 students. These students CAN be served in other public universities at a much lower cost. They might not be able to design their own majors or courses, but neither can most students in other universities. Every administrator serves only 600 students (unless there are multiple administrators in the same position, then fewer students than all 600).
If a private school in Vermont wants to serve only 600 students and can figure out how to do it with the money it charges for tuition or raises from large donors, great. NCF is a public school and it is draining more than its fair share from the public funds. Is it fair that a student at U of West Florida get fewer resources than one at NCF? NCF has a sugar daddy in the state of Florida whereas the school in Vermont would just have to close.
Compounding things NCF has one of the lowest graduation rates of Florida public 4 year colleges. So expensive and not very effective.
You and I agree on this. I donât know that NCF was ever worth the money. Iâve had limited experience with it (from students or their parents), but it was all negative.
I donât think DeSantis is doing a good thing with it though. I donât care for politicians deciding education, esp at the college level. The most he should be doing is saying itâs not an affordable option to keep going, so fix it or change it into something that has more value for the state. State indoctrination isnât it. If enough people want a Hillsdale of the South, sell the campus to a private organization and let them develop it into one.
Agreed
Isnât the introduction of the current DEI policy into education to some extent politicians interfering in education? Federal ones in this case? Politicians and/or other large institutional forces âŠ
In the same way that non-discrimination policies are. I agree with those. I disagree with politicians deciding what can or canât be taught within classes at a college level.
At the K-12 level states set their minimums by various state benchmarks that need to be met, but I donât believe itâs generally politicians setting those bars. Itâs education folks. Our school has sent teachers to those conferences before where they hash out what should be in a course like Bio. I also canât think of much that couldnât be taught in modern times (other than religious faith vs religious history). Now weâre getting into âpretend those people donât existâ categories.
The biology teachers in your school have not had to fight the âcreation scienceâ wars?