Yesterday, I was invited to a group on Facebook called “Make UF Florida’s Flagship School.” I appreciate the support for UF, but as a Floridian this horrifies me. We are all Gators at UF, and we all want to be seen as the best in Florida. While I refuse to take a stance on whether we are better than that other school, this is the wrong approach.
The Florida education system is falling into the hole compared to the northern and western states. We are extremely low-ranked on the teacher salaries, badly ranked with primary education and talk to me about the budget issue. While UF is suffering budget cuts, FSU and USF are too. Personally, I don’t think we should need the recognition to be the best in the state, and we should prove it to everyone else by being more successful.
Why don’t we spend more time writing bills for the state to increase teacher pay and school funding? Let’s prove that we are indeed the best university in Florida by making amends to what is already wrong with the state, and let our reputation speak for itself. Go Gators!
