Florida May Run Out Of Teachers By End Of Year
Florida is already in crisis with a shortage of teachers. Now, the Florida teacher vacancy looks to double as the end of school nears.
Florida’s education system has been the talk of the nation recently. Just a few weeks ago, Governor Ron DeSantis went viral after a video depicted him chiding students for wearing masks. Now, a new report is again taking jabs at Florida’s education system, as statistics suggest that the sunshine state may run out of Florida teachers soon.
At the beginning of the 2021 school year, the Florida Education Association released a report that the state had 4 thousand teacher vacancies. Because the numbers appeared so strikingly high, the association performed a recount in October. Upon re-tally, the findings were even more jaw-dropping. Florida teacher vacancies were closer to 5 thousand.
If the number of Florida teacher vacancies wasn’t alarming enough for the state that educates over 2.8 million children, the education association anticipated the teacher dropout to extend through the rest of the school year. By school end, they estimate that the teacher vacancy could reach 9 thousand. So what exactly is the reason so many Florida teachers are abandoning ship? Most likely, there are multiple factors.
Burnout from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is surely one of the largest factors causing Florida teachers, along with countless others nationwide, to leave their jobs in education. With the Florida government often sparring with local municipalities over mask mandates, many teachers likely left following Governor Ron DeSantis’ executive order that parents, not schools, should decide to protect their children during the pandemic. As kids were set to return to school this September, news broke that the Florida Commissioner of Education withheld salaries of school officials over the mask mandates.
While the raging pandemic and associated school politics surely play into the increase of Florida teacher vacancies, the underlying cause points to underpaid salaries for teachers throughout the state. In 2020, DeSantis raised the base pay for teachers in Florida. Under the new wages, teachers’ base pay was set at least to $47,500. For the same school year, the NEA reported that the national average teacher salary was $65,090. For perspective, Florida’s average teacher pay that year was $49,102, making Florida one of the lowest paying states in the nation.
To make matters worse, a new bill making its way through Florida’s government could further hinder the state’s urge to fill Florida teacher vacancies. HB 1203
would add another regulation to how districts offer pay increases to teachers. Sponsored by Republican Rep. Elizabeth Fetterhoff, the proposed bill specifies that teacher evaluation procedures are not subject to mandatory collective bargaining. Ultimately, the bill would leave it up to school districts to decide whether terms about the evaluation process could be used during collective bargaining and lead to fewer bonuses for seasoned teachers.
Plenty of other proposed bills are making their way through Florida that could be affecting the alarming Florida teacher vacancy numbers as well. As more Republicans push for stricter transparency and regulations on teachings in the classroom, House Bills 1557 and 7 could lead to more resignations. HB 1557 seeks to limit classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. Similarly, HB 7 looks to ban teachers from teaching anything that could possibly make a child feel racism is inherent. The joy and the passion is being sucked out of our profession,” said Stephanie Yocum, a former algebra teacher who left the classroom after 10 years to lead the Polk Education Association for teachers unions. Most of Florida’s public schools have a little over two months left in the school year. The anticipated 9 thousand teacher vacancies might seem high, but only time will tell if more teachers leave their careers behind by the end of the year.
