By Annie Hays, Staff Writer
There has been much debate over whether liberal arts degrees are still important, and if STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and business degrees should get more funding.
On Oct. 2011, Florida Governor Rick Scott stated that he wanted more funding for STEM and business programs.
“If I’m going to take money from a citizen to put into education, then I’m going to take that money to create jobs,” Scott told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. “So I want that money to go to degrees where people can get jobs in this state. Is it a vital interest of the state to have more anthropologists? I don’t think so.”
More recently, on Dec. 2012 Scott was making plans for how to funnel more people into these “job-creating” degree programs by charging less tuition for STEM and business degrees and forcing liberal arts majors to make up the difference by paying more.
On the surface this seems like a good idea. Few people can deny that businessmen and engineers make up a huge part of the United States economy. But are liberal arts degrees truly dead-weight to the economy?
Scott’s motivation for the tuition difference is job-creation. His reasoning is simple: business and STEM majors will create more jobs than liberal arts majors.
If Scott and others are basing this belief on the average salaries for each major, they may have a point.
According to Chris Isidore from CNN Money, a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found the average salary of college graduates in 2012 was $44,455. The salary ranges were $36,988 for humanities and social sciences graduates to $61,913 engineering degree holders. Computer science majors came in second highest with $59,221.
However, Scott is not concerned with salaries. He is concerned with job creation. Also, this study only looked at college grads who have found work in their fields. So who creates these high-paying jobs for engineers and computer science majors?
According to the Independent Florida Alligator, in 2008 Duke and Harvard University surveyed the CEOs and heads of product engineering at 502 technology companies. Oddly enough, they found that 92 percent held bachelor’s degrees or higher, but only 37 percent held degrees in engineering or computer technology.
So if engineers and computer majors are not creating the jobs, then who is? Vivek Ranadivé, a writer for Forbes Magazine, has an engineering degree, an MBA, and owns a billion-dollar software company.
“Any job that can be outsourced eventually will be, from IT to back-office medical or financial work, for a fraction of the cost,” he says. “Also, whatever can be done by a computer will be done by a computer.”
Why then are liberal arts, with their focus on creativity and analyzing large amounts of information, so desirable to a software CEO?
“The people who will succeed in more expensive labor markets like the U.S. will be those who can think creatively and generate the IDEAS that will propel economic growth. Such skills are best fostered in a traditional liberal arts environment.”
Florida’s economy desperately needs people to create more jobs. Florida is the ninth fastest growing state, but this state still has a 7.7 percent unemployment rate.
According to 10 News, Rick Scott says Florida could be the next Silicon Valley because it offers a lifestyle that many people want, but it needs more graduates in high-tech fields.
Liberal Arts majors are arguably a necessity to the community, like any other major. Everybody brings their own talents and skills to the workplace that helps to keep moving forward.
