Florida’s commitment to sub-standard education has taken a new twisted curve. On Nov. 3, JEB! signed the legislation that will bring the Scripps Research Institute to Palm Beach County.
With a $510 million bribe, $200 from Palm Beach County, $310 from the Florida Legislature, Scripps will build an East coast site. Scripps, a non-for profit biotech firm that’s major work is in Alzheimer’s disease is based in La Jolla, California. This jewel has helped boost research and teaching in its Southern California site. JEB! hopes that it will stimulate the economy and make Florida a major player in the biotech field.
Not so fast, JEB! Scripps is a non-for-profit company whose goal is to do research in science and teach. Usually, if you want to stimulate the economy you bring in a company that is concerned with the economy.
Also, according to the Boca News, “Scripps must hire 545 people in Florida within seven years and must reinvest up to $155 million.” If you read closely, it doesn’t say that Scripps has to pay back “at least,” no it says “up to.” That means Scripps doesn’t have to pay anywhere near the $155 million. In fact, the Palm Beach Post reported in October that Scripp’s “potential economic impact was exaggerated and the expected return on state revenues might be closer to $15 million.” That’s a 2.9 percent return on the combined investment of the state and county.
As far as jobs go, only 545 jobs to Floridians in seven years isn’t a lot. In fact, because its biotechnology, most of the initial jobs aren’t going to go to Floridians. They’re going to have to import people from around the country, the brain drain. So, the high paying jobs will go to people from outside of Florida. Admittedly, 50,000 jobs are projected because of Scripps and spin-offs, but as the Sun-Sentinel points out, there is a concern that “the bulk of jobs available to local residents are more likely to be in the kitchen of new fast food franchise than in the state-of-the-art laboratories jammed with test tubes and nuclear scanners.”
Those fears aren’t unfounded. Over the past decade, the Florida Legislature has cut $484 million in university budget. Florida also ranks 42 in BA’s given out. If we aren’t bothering to spend the money necessary to be a leader in education, then how are we going to fill jobs in the science field? Until JEB! starts taking higher education seriously in Florida, most of those well paying jobs will go to people moving to Florida.
Another legitimate concern about who gets the jobs is minority hiring. According to the Post, “of the 2,840 employees at the [Scripp’s] headquarters near San Diego, only 3 percent are black.” Scripps defends those numbers by saying that minorities aren’t well represented in the sciences. Also, the told the Post that “35 percent of employees at Scripps are minorities.” Nevertheless, those numbers are still far lower than they should be and if Scripps is going to do business in Palm Beach County, they’re going to have to do a lot better job of minority hiring because, sadly, a lot of the people without jobs or with low paying jobs around here are minorities.
So, with all these obstacles, why did Scripps choose Palm Beach County? Because of the philanthropy. Palm Beach County equals lots of old donors who might want to see Alzheimer being cured. Isn’t it ironic that JEB! and Palm Beach County will spend $510 million to bring in a company that can cure ailments, when they spent the summer cutting workers compensation benefits and health care to the poor?
