Florida Push for PolyTech “More About What the Local Chamber Wants than What the State Needs”
Did Florida’s former university state chancellor give pause to governor Rick Scott’s STEM focus in general and J.D. Alexander’s Lakeland Poly Tech school in particular? In a speech Thursday to the Florida Council of 100,Charlie Reed criticized his old state.
“That’s no place for a polytechnic university,” Reed said of the Lakeland branch campus. “That’s no Silicon Valley. California has only 2 polytechnics for 38 million people – and we have Silicon Valley.”
Reed said he thinks that misguided debate stemmed from a common thrust in Florida, which is to push “what the local chamber wants, not what the state needs.”
“These institutions are now acting as lone players or competitors,” he said. “There’s no sense of mission because it’s every institution for itself. And there’s no incentive for them to act in Florida’s best interests.”
That’s gotta leave a mark. And on pretty much everybody, too. But Reed’s clearly stating that the state’s