Interview: Angela Falconetti

Angela Falconetti

President Polk State College

What impact has the Open Educational Resources initiative had on student tuition?

This was an initiative that our faculty led along with our instructional technology area at the college to reduce textbook costs. The faculty worked together to be able to provide the resources that were needed for students without there being a strong requirement for textbooks, which are prohibitively expensive. We’re proud of the creativity of our faculty and staff. We also have a couple of other grants relating to rapid credentialing. We have an initiative in which we’re partnering with the Florida Department of Education, the Fast Forward program, which is emergency education relief. We were provided approximately $600,000 to implement rapid credentialing for areas including technology, bookkeeping, web production, logistics and machining.

What makes your healthcare program stand out?

First is the quality of the faculty. We have great content specialists who lead our healthcare program. At the end of the day, it comes back to leadership. The connections that the leader makes, the people they hire, seeing the student from start to finish and employment or to pursue another degree. The other piece that is critical to highlight are the great relationships with our healthcare professionals at the area’s healthcare entities.

What is your outlook for Polk State College?

We believe the outlook is positive regardless of the pandemic. We’re going to have some challenges ahead, which I believe in the end will translate into opportunities. But the challenges are going to be primarily, in our estimation, financial. The state shortfall from COVID in early March 2021 was close to $3 billion. We expect that we’re going to be impacted. A 6% holdback of funding was instituted for all state agencies beginning this new fiscal year. We’ve been operating with 6% less budget. We remain concerned about the preparation of our students, specifically just because of the remote environment. has led to an exponential increase in teacher workload since March 2020, with almost three-quarters of teachers saying workloads have increased and more than half say they are going without regular breaks.

So not only were children becoming more preoccupied with out-of-school responsibilities and distractions during school hours, but their teachers were facing burnout. Even with access to a laptop or internet connection, for some students it was also impossible to find a quiet space in the house to study. For others, parents’ inability to afford childcare meant that they were often babysitting siblings.

Another trend of “learning pods” has emerged during the pandemic, where parents hire teachers for smallgroup in-home tutoring. It has become incredibly popular, according to a report in Tampa Bay Business Journal. However, the trend again risks marginalizing the worse-off students economically.

41.1% of Tampa Bay residents have a Bachelor’s degree or higher.

Alfonso Gutierrez

Institutional Dean of Academic Affairs – The Art Institute of Tampa (Miami International University of Art and Design)

The type of education we provide prepares our students to successfully address industry needs, not only in the short term, but instilling a long-term mentality too. This year, we have been structuring a new initiative called the Miami International University of Art and Design - Global Campus, which is a platform with 100% online programs, where our students will be able to receive all the high-quality education that we have been providing, with an added element of flexibility at the on-ground level. They can take their classes online or at any of our campuses, combining the options.

These types of programs offer two key components to be successful: flexibility and adaptability, without sacrificing quality.

K-12 Around 86% of Tampa Bay residents have completed at least a high school education, which is a number on par with the national and state averages. But still, about 1.5% report no schooling and 10.6% have less than a high school education. The vast majority of the area is enrolled in public education, at 77% compared to 23% private school enrollment. Berkeley Preparatory, a private school, is the best elementary and middle school in Tampa, according to Niche, followed by fellow private school Shorecrest Preparatory.

As well as Berkeley and Shorecrest, five more Tampa Bay K-12 private schools rank among the top 1% in the country. Unsurprisingly, the Top 11 schools in the area are private, but at No. 12 is Dayspring Academy, which operates under the Pasco County Schools District. Similarly, private schools take the Top 5 spots for high schools but are followed by St. Petersburg Collegiate High, which belongs to the Pinellas County Schools District. Strawberry Crest High and Plant High, both in Hillsborough County also make the Top 10. Hillsborough County comes in seventh place in Florida for the amount it pays its teachers. The median salary is just over $50,000 and the county employs just under 14,000 teachers.

When the COVID-19 vaccine was rolled out, there was debate over where teachers should stand in the priority line. On the one hand, teachers generally do not fall into the vulnerable categories and the virus affects children less severely. On the other hand, allowing children to get back to school was seen as a jumpstart for the economy, allowing parents to get back to work and for normal life to resume.