{"id":17188,"date":"2013-03-05T11:10:35","date_gmt":"2013-03-05T16:10:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=17188"},"modified":"2013-03-05T10:57:44","modified_gmt":"2013-03-05T15:57:44","slug":"house-speaker-wants-to-change-culture-of-mediocrity-in-higher-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/03\/05\/house-speaker-wants-to-change-culture-of-mediocrity-in-higher-education\/","title":{"rendered":"House Speaker Wants To Change ‘Culture Of Mediocrity’ In Higher Education"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Myfloridahouse.gov\/Meredith Geddings<\/p>

House Speaker Will Weatherford is holding out for an online university in Florida.<\/p><\/div>\n

House Speaker Will Weatherford banged the opening gavel in the Florida House this morning, introducing the 60-day session with a speech heavily focused on education.<\/p>\n

He promised the continued \u201cpursuit of a world-class, student-centered K-12 education system in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he said attention must be paid to higher education as well, because \u201ceducation solves problems that government cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weatherford encouraged lawmakers to break free from a \u201cnarrow vision that has encouraged a culture of mediocrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are more of Weatherford\u2019s remarks on higher education, including emphasizing a high-quality online university and granting the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition rates:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cWe set the stage last year with an approach that we called preeminence. \u00a0It was a good idea then and it’s a good idea now.<\/p>\n

Every university will have the same opportunity to earn more funding through high achievement. No University will have a guaranteed outcome.<\/p>\n

But equally important, we need an innovative university that utilizes and leverages technology in a way like never before.<\/p>\n

Universities must be challenged to think differently.<\/p>\n

In order to do this, we need to inject a disruptive innovation into the system.<\/p>\n

A branded, accredited, singularly focused online university will be that catalyst for change.<\/p>\n

The demand is already here. Floridians from every walk of life can and will utilize this option as soon as we offer it.<\/p>\n

And the best part about it is that we can offer it for a fraction of the cost. Our next generation of students won’t have to choose between being saddled with debt and getting a degree.<\/p>\n

While we are removing barriers to upward mobility for Floridians, we must not forget a group of people who’ve been left behind.<\/p>\n

Our nation is a nation of immigrants. Florida is a state of immigrants. But today, we’re treating some of our children born in Florida whose parents made mistakes, as second-class citizens.<\/p>\n

They do not enjoy what every other child born in Florida receives – in-state tuition.<\/p>\n

If you’re born in America you’re an American. \u00a0And to hold any other view completely contradicts everything that our country was founded upon.<\/p>\n

I want to thank Representatives Nunez, Trujillo, Artilles and Fullwood for working together to bring forth a bill that will put into statute what our constitution, our courts, and frankly our conscience tells us is right.<\/p>\n

I look forward to voting yes on their bill.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Speaker Will Weatherford banged the opening gavel in the Florida House this morning, introducing the 60-day session with a speech heavily focused on education. He promised the continued \u201cpursuit of a world-class, student-centered K-12 education system in Florida.\u201d But he said attention must be paid to higher education as well, because \u201ceducation solves problems […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[1013,1040,663,798,769],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}