Florida Governor May Divert Taxes to STEM Majors

Florida Gov. Rick Scott has a message for any aspiring anthropologists in Florida: Look elsewhere.

The Republican governor told conservative radio show host Marc Bernier this week that the state is going to begin shifting funding away from certain liberal arts majors at state universities to favor STEM disciplines.

"You know, we don't need a lot more anthropologists in the state. It's a great degree if people want to get it, but we don't need them here," he said.

Scott said students need to focus on studying subjects that can get them jobs—specifically in high-growth areas such as STEM.

"I want to spend our dollars giving people science, technology, engineering, math degrees. That's what our kids need to focus all their time and attention on," he said. "So when they get out of school, they can get a job."

He told Bernier that everything he does as governor has been designed to keep the cost of living down and to create jobs. Since taking over as governor at the beginning of the year, Scott says he's made the state more friendly for corporations, and that Florida has added more than 10,000 private-sector jobs each month this year.

"My job is to keep building jobs each and every day," he told Bernier. "People that are thinking about making big corporate moves, they're thinking about Florida for the first time."

Scott reiterated his position to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

"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," he told the paper.

Any Floridians who are considering studying anthropology may have to look elsewhere, anyway. Florida State University recently announced that it is no longer admitting students to its undergraduate and graduate anthropology programs because of the state's budget crisis.

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