DeSantis's solution to Florida teacher shortage (college, degree, county, high school)

[redguard57]

I read with interest what Governor DeSantis's proposals are to relieve the 9000 teacher shortage Florida is facing.

https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborou...cher-shortage/

https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/educat...rst-responders

1. Bonuses for first responders and military who become teachers. Looks like the bonus is $4k.
2. Provisional 5-year certifications to people with at least an Associate's Degree, as long as they are working towards their bachelor's.
3. Scholarships to earn free master's degree. This looks like a retention incentive.
4. The newest one - veterans/first responders can get the 5 year provisional certification with just 60 hours of college.

Nowhere does it say - INCREASE THE SALARY! That is the core problem.

I mean, the problem is pretty simple. I just googled "teacher jobs florida." Up top popped up a social studies high school teaching gig for Hendry County School District. The high school in question is in Clewiston, Florida. It looks like the good people of Clewiston are starting the school year without a social studies teacher.

I looked up what Hendry County school district pays. Starting teacher salary is 45k, ending is 77k.

I did a Zillow search for 2/1+ houses. Houses in Hendry country start at about 220k. Cheapest SFH for sale in Clewston right now is 229k. There was a townhome listed at 194k but it had an HOA fee of over 200 a month. With Florida's increased home insurance costs, a starting teacher will not qualify to buy one without a big downpayment, and/or until they get about 7-12 years in service to start making in the 60k range.

I mean, it's obvious what the problem is. I can make MORE than 45k a year as a bartender and it's less stress than teaching and don't need a degree or to be working towards one.

I like that DeSantis is trying something, but he is ignoring the elephant in the room which is the pay. I would bet good money they get, at most, 1-2k new teachers out of this, far fewer than the 9k they need. Probably fewer than that. How many first responders are going to quit their jobs that probably pay more, to become teachers? How many veterans who have college are unemployed out there? Odds are those people are skilled & have better jobs than ones that pay 45k. The ones that aren't probably have background check issues; that's why they don't have good jobs. DeSantis is approaching this by trying to lower the bar to enter the profession, but even doing that I doubt they get many takers.

The reality is that the whole payscale needs to be increased at least 15% and probably more like 25-40% if you want to attract good people to the profession.

[toobusytoday]

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