{"id":1153,"date":"2009-12-29T13:42:33","date_gmt":"2009-12-29T17:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=1153"},"modified":"2009-12-29T13:45:33","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T17:45:33","slug":"science-education-floridas-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1153","title":{"rendered":"Science education & Florida’s economy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Sentinel recently published an article<\/a> about the sorry state of Florida’s economy. After depending on population growth and finally seeing that tank, the question is what does the state do now? The establishment of bio-tech centers (Burnham and Scripps, for example) looks promising, but there are some fatal flaws with this plan. That’s where education — with science education a big part of that — comes in:<\/p>\n

The state has lagged behind competitors in nurturing the kind of educated labor pool required by high-tech manufacturing, information technology, bio-tech, renewable energy and other emerging industries.<\/p>\n

Enterprise Florida, the state’s chief economic development agency, concluded as much in a 2008 report assessing Florida’s economic competitiveness. It said the state remains “an aspiring tech hub” that is hampered by weaknesses in the so-called “knowledge economy.”<\/p>\n

Translation? Compared to competitors, Florida has fewer scientists, engineers and highly-skilled workers. Companies here spend less on research and development, the state produces fewer patents and venture capitalists invest less money.<\/p>\n

“Florida’s knowledge economy,” the authors wrote, “underperforms both domestically and globally.”<\/p>\n

State Sen. Dan Gelber, D- Miami Beach, said Florida has failed to create an educational system that prepares students for a 21st Century economy.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

He and others would funnel more money toward all levels of education and beef up technical offerings for students who weren’t going to college.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Such a transformation isn’t going to happen overnight, if it happens at all. Florida’s leaders and decision makers are merely giving science education lip service. It’s going to take monumental effort to put science education on the right track in this state, and I am having trouble seeing that happen considering how easy it is to propogate anti-science garbage in the highest levels of state government (example<\/a>, example<\/a>, example<\/a>). Also see the Bridge to Tomorrow blog<\/a> for ongoing commentary on the progress — or lack thereof — of science education in Florida.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Orlando Sentinel recently published an article about the sorry state of Florida’s economy. After depending on population growth and finally seeing that tank, the question is what does the state do now? The establishment of bio-tech centers (Burnham and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-iB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1270","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":0},"title":"Florida Academy of Sciences opposes Wise’s bill","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Florida Academy of Sciences has issued a position statement opposing Senator Stephen Wise's antievolution bill. A pdf of their position statement is here. Some excerpts from the Florida Academy of Sciences' statement: SB 1854, in effect, leaves the door open for the introduction in the public school curriculum of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1146,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1146","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":1},"title":"Last in the nation in science, but still twiddling thumbs.","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"December 13, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Cottle, professor and undergraduate director in the Department of Physics at Florida State University, has an opinion column in the Tallahassee Democrat outlining the dismal state of science education in Florida. No one wants to step up and do anything serious about this problem. Florida students are pretty much\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1146#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":443,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=443","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":2},"title":"News roundup","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"The St. Petersburg Times has an editorial up supporting evolution in the state science standards. On Tuesday, the state Board of Education will vote on new science standards that finally insist that Florida's students receive comprehensive biology instruction that includes evolution as its underlying concept. It is an economic imperative\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Our Science Standards"","block_context":{"text":"Our Science Standards","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":531,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=531","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":3},"title":"Free Florida’s students from lagging behind","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"April 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a good guest opinion column in the Orlando Sentinel: Free Florida's students from lagging behind Some 422,000 Floridians remained out of work in February, the housing market continued its downward spiral, and less than two-fifths -- just 37 percent -- of all 11th-graders across Florida had mastered science-learning goals\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08"","block_context":{"text":"\"Academic Freedom\" bills '08","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1429,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1429","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":4},"title":"University System Chancellor Touts STEM Classes of Florida’s Economic Plan","author":"Jonathan Smith","date":"October 27, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00c2\u00a0Frank T. Brogan, chancellor of the State University System of Florida, said in a\u00c2\u00a0impassioned talk Wednesday,that it was time for Florida to \"grow up\"touting a growing focus on STEM classes as a move toward that goal. Speaking at the 2011 Florida STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) Summit, Brogan rallied\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1145,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1145","url_meta":{"origin":1153,"position":5},"title":"Florida end-of-course exams","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The Orlando Sentinel has a story up about Florida's attempt to introduce end-of-course exams. Paul Cottle's efforts on behalf of science education are mentioned: About 100 Florida science professors think Florida isn't doing enough if a biology exam is the only end-of-course science exam it plans. Earlier this year, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 4 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 4 comments","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1145#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}