Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Don't use fees to disguise a tuition increase

By LETTERS O THE EDITOR
Published November 13, 2006

I was very disappointed to read that the president of the University of Florida wants to charge all incoming undergraduates a $500 per semester fee. As noted in the article, this fee will not be covered under the Florida Prepaid College Plan.

I am one of the thousands of Floridians who is participating in Florida Prepaid. The deal with the state is that parents pay the full cost for four years' tuition in advance at today's rates , then when their children are old enough to go to college the state pays their tuition (but not the fees) at any state university or college.

Fees are normally small and are used to cover incidental expenses such as lab supplies or student government.

In this article, UF president Bernie Machen freely admitted that this fee is an attempt to circumvent both the Florida Prepaid and Bright Futures scholarships. This certainly violates the spirit if not the letter of the contract that Florida Prepaid participants have with the state.

If tuition can be surreptitiously increased by calling it a "fee," then what incentive does anyone now have for participating in Florida Prepaid?

I understand Machen's desire to reduce the teacher/pupil ratio at UF, but he should continue to lobby the Legislature for a tuition increase and not pursue this back-door approach.

Robert Trehy, St. Petersburg

Pupils say they despair in school Nov. 6

Support for students

The survey recently conducted among high school students confirms the empirical information Community Tampa Bay (formerly known as the National Conference for Community and Justice) has been gathering for years: Our school climate is deteriorating, with student and staff dissatisfaction reaching unprecedented heights. The challenge can seem overwhelming, and yet it need not be.

As a human relations organization dedicated to promoting dialogue and eliminating all forms of discrimination, Community Tampa Bay (www.communitytampabay.org/) has dramatically stepped up its efforts to reach out to Pinellas County students and teachers through our Youth Conferences and support for the Principals' Multicultural Advisory Committees.

This school year, we will be conducting 38 Youth Conferences in schools to address topics ranging from stereotypes and discrimination to body image, cliques and bullying. Each of our workshops instills the principles of inclusion and respect through dialogue and leadership.

In times of increased emphasis on student achievement, let us not forget that welcoming learning environments are a precondition for students to reach their full learning potential.

Birgit Van Hout, executive director, Community Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg

Counselors' plight

Thank you for your excellent article about the plight of overburdened school guidance counselors (Schools: Guidance falling off course, Oct. 28). Here is some more information:

You noted that "counselors spend 40 percent of their time on paperwork, much of it FCAT-related." Then every day they spend another 20 percent doing cafeteria duty and covering the secretary's desk for an hour while she is at lunch. Figure another 30 minutes for the counselor's own lunch time (if she or he is lucky enough to take time to eat), and you have only one-third of the day left to answer parent phone calls and e-mails, work on paperwork for ESE and other special programs, and finally find some time to actually talk to students.

You said that school counselors "make ... about $3,000 more than the average teacher with a master's degree." Actually, Pinellas County counselors are on the same instructional contract as teachers and are paid on the same scale. They are only paid more if they work up to six additional days during the summer.

Is it really any wonder that there is a shortage of new counselors ready to step into the shoes of the retiring baby boomers?

Linda Sullivan, Clearwater

A chance to change

President Bush should take a page out of the California governor's book. This may keep him from going down in history as our country's worst president. He still has two years to do it.

He should fire Karl Rove and take his advice from the American voters. There are dozens of policies that he can still reverse. To name a few: Be realistic about global warming, minimum wage, the war in Iraq, and above all tell corporations that they have taken too large a piece of the pie. Leave some for middle-class Americans who are the backbone of this great country of ours.

Jack Levine, Palm Harbor

A dismaying vote, letter Nov. 9

The uninformed voter

The letter writer says, "I guess that the term simple pertains just to the mentality of the 57.9 percent of the voters who voted YES on Amendment 3 ..."

No - the mentality of those who voted "yes" are those who most likely prefer to have our state Constitution amended by a group of duly elected voter representatives who are mostly informed but pressured by special interest groups - rather than have legislation enacted (via constitutional amendment) by a segment of the electorate who are mostly uninformed but pressured by special interest groups.

A.E. Roberts, St. Petersburg

The next onslaught

Now that we have managed to endure - but just barely - the political commercial season, we must gird our loins for the Christmas commercial season.

Jim Throne, Dunedin

[Last modified November 13, 2006, 01:35:43]