How Florida is tackling unemployment by encouraging growth and education
Rick Scott Governor – State of Florida
Florida has seen the second biggest drop in unemployment in the U.S. What have you and your administration done to achieve these figures?
Unemployment is at 4.9 percent, and we’ve added some 1.26 million private-sector jobs, which is double the national rate. Four years before I was elected, Florida lost 832,000 jobs. To tackle this, we cut 4,600 regulations, cut taxes 55 times and recruited 900 companies either to come to Florida or expand into the state. We’ve gone on trade missions around the world, and we’ve made sure that our universities are focused on where the greatest job needs are. We’ve asked “how can we help businesses here to be more successful than they are anywhere else?” That is our attitude, and we are better than anyone else in the country. We have to keep cutting taxes and reducing regulations. U.S. News & World Report has said Florida is first for higher education, but we have to keep getting better. We have to make education more affordable and make sure the colleges and universities are very focused on where the jobs are. We now have 25 percent of universities’ budgets tied to three things: What does it cost to get a degree? What field can you get a job in? How much money do you make? We’ve got to make sure we are focused on getting people ready for careers and dealing with the system.
Technology, life sciences and healthcare are all growing sectors in the State of Florida. What is being done to encourage the growth of these sectors?
We’ve got to make these sectors more successful here than in any other place in the world. We have to build relationships, which is why one of the things we do as part of Enterprise Florida is consultations with businesses to help them do better. We make sure they have the right workforce, and we do that through a variety of programs through our state colleges and universities. We’ve got to keep reducing their taxes so they can reinvest in their businesses because when they reinvest in their businesses, we get more jobs.
What impact has a greater emphasis on developing education had on Florida? How will education develop in the future?
Tuition fee increases have been halted. They were increasing at 15 percent plus inflation every year when I came into office. We haven’t seen an increase in four years at our universities or state colleges. We reimburse the schools according to what’s important to students, lower tuition fees and getting a good-paying job when they finish. We have the highest graduation rates of the 10 most populous states. We’ve increased our funding for universities by almost 50 percent since I got elected. The most important thing is that every child has opportunity. It doesn’t matter where you live or how you grew up, I want every child to have the dream of this country
