EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT: WHAT'S IN A MAJOR?

Governor Rick Scott caused quite a stir when he questioned the value of an anthropology major.

His point was, with rising college costs and weak employment, students might be better off with a major that could land them a job. Not to mention that our tax dollars would be better spent in public education that's relevant to the times.

Scott dared to suggest an emphasis in science, computer technology, engineering and math, the so-called STEM fields.

Florida educators howled. An exodus of students from liberal arts and the humanities would weaken departments already bloated with tenured professors. (An exception is Florida Gulf Coast University, where STEM has long been a priority.)

Carlos Rotella, a Boston College teacher, recently weighed in with a column in the Boston Globe. Rotella posited that a student's major doesn't qualify him for a job. The student's ability to reason and communicate does.

Rotella wrote that after four years of proper college training, "you can assimilate and organize large, complex bodies of information; you can analyze that information to create outcomes that have value to others; and you can express your ideas in clear, purposeful language."

Wow! How many graduates right out of college can do that? I certainly couldn't. For most, that takes years of experience.

Rotella goes on to say, "Whether you honed those skills in the study of foreign policy or Russian novels is secondary, even trivial." The major doesn't matter.

I beg to differ.

The major does matter, particularly if you enter the workplace after a two- or four-year college. Training in physics, journalism, accounting, business or engineering is likely to open the employment door wider than, say, a major in Russian literature, black studies or Hindu culture.

Of course, on-the-job training and experience can help the Hindu culture major become a useful contributor -- if he can land the job in the first place. Certainly the ability to reason and analyze, as advocated by Professor Rotella, will serve the graduate well once he is employed. But first he has to get the job.

And for that, the major is important.

Underscoring the point, the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workplace just reported the majors that were least employable were fine arts, the humanities and liberal arts. (Also included was architecture, a victim of the housing market.)

How about a post-graduate degree? Does that make a difference?

Often it does.

One of my daughters-in-law majored in Spanish, but then got a law degree. My daughter majored in fine arts, but went on to earn an M.B.A. My wife, an English major, took an M.S. in library science. All of these advanced degrees opened the doors to employment.

This doesn't always work. There is a glut of Ph.D.s in esoteric fields. For example, there aren't enough teaching positions in the Western world to house all of the doctorates in archeology.

Yet we have to import scientists and engineers, lots of them, to fill well-paying positions in this country.

So Governor Scott got it mostly right. The direction of public education does matter. It matters for the Florida economy and the Florida taxpayer. With shrinking budgets and stagnant growth, our tax dollars are best spent for education that is job-relevant.

And it matters to the strapped college student, whose debt at a state university could well top $30,000 (much more at a private school).

It should come as no surprise that this student wants to see something for his money. Like a job. And, while nothing is guaranteed, the right major is his best bet for opening that employment door.