In an interview with the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Governor Rick Scott that he would rather shift funding for education to math, science and technology departments instead of traditionally liberal-arts-focused fields of psychology and anthropology. “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, whose daughter has a degree in anthropology from the College of William and Mary, stated. “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.” He would reaffirm his stance later in a radio interview where he added, “It’s a great degree if people want to get it. But we don’t need them here.”
Despite the state having an unemployment rate of 10.7 percent, 1.6 percent higher than the national average, Scott’s popularity rating has jumped 6 percent to 35 percent, mainly among “Republicans and men” according to Peter Brown, University of Connecticut’s assistant polling director.
“I ran on a very specific platform to turn the state around,” Scott said in an interview conducted by a St. Petersburg news station. “It was to make the tough choices that people aren’t willing to make.”
Aside from attempting education reform, other topics on Scott’s agenda include making the jobless undergo training in order to receive unemployment benefits, improving the states ports, and, of course, increasing the number of science and math based graduates from the state’s universities.