Waste of the Day: Spending at “DeSantis U.”

Topline: Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida GOP have staged something of a coup at the New College of Florida, and it’s leaving taxpayers with an enormous bill.

Ron DeSantis appointed most of a college’s trustees, and they’re raking it in

New university president and former state Speaker of the House Richard Corcoran earned at least $900,000 for his first year of work, according to payroll records obtained by OpenTheBooks.com. And in order for Corcoran to get the job, the college fired President Patricia Okker while keeping her on the payroll.

In total, New College, a small school that’s part of the State University System of Florida, spent an estimated $91,000 per student last year. The Florida average is $10,000 per student.

Key facts: DeSantis appointed six new members to the New College Board of Trustees in January 2023, leading the Washington Post to dub the institution “DeSantis U.”

At their first board meeting, the new trustees asked President Okker to declare that her faculty were “indoctrinating” students by supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. When she refused, the board fired her immediately and hired Corcoran, a “close ally” of DeSantis.

The outcome was seemingly predetermined. Before Okker was even fired, Corcoran sent a letter to his business clients announcing he would become president of New College.

Cocoran received $700,000 in salary in 2023, OpenTheBooks found. He also earned a $200,000 performance-based bonus, according to WPTV5. Estimated benefits of 30% would bring Cocoran’s total compensation to $1.1 million.

Okker earned $305,000 last year for less than two months of work, per payroll records, presumably as severance or some similar arrangement.

Search all federal, state and local government salaries and vendor spending with the AI search bot, Benjamin, at OpenTheBooks.com.

What’s up with the spending?

Background: Florida Phoenix reported on a Board of Governors meeting last month where New College’s spending was questioned.

Board member Eric Silagy divided the college’s state funding by its enrollment to show that $91,000 was spent on each student last year. Corcoran said the actual number was $68,000 but did not explain his calculation.

New College asked for $200 million in funding for the next five years. In-state tuition is less than $7,000, leaving the state to cover a large gap.

Critical quote: “We’re supporting the honors college having 35% of their students be student athletes and the $100+ million to support that,” Silagy said. “We are supporting spending a lot more money to educate a very small number of students that already cost exponentially more of state taxpayer dollars to educate. And I personally have real concerns with that.”

Summary: American education should remain free of political influence, especially when it costs as much as it does at New College.

The #WasteOfTheDay is brought to you by the forensic auditors at OpenTheBooks.com

This article was originally published by RealClearInvestigations and made available via RealClearWire.