“Our children are at stake: teacher shortage in Florida is one of the worst in the country”

ORLANDO, Florida. Florida public schools continue to face a shortage of teachers.

The number of job openings in the Sunshine State has doubled in the last two years, and it is estimated that more than 100,000 students do not have a full-time teacher.

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Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, joined host Justin Warmot on The Weekly to explain why the deficit is getting worse and how it can be improved.

“Our community is at stake, our future is at stake, our children are at stake,” Spar said. “I think the legislature understands, and I hope the governor does too, that we are going to dramatically increase the salaries of all teachers in our schools. We must restore respect for the profession throughout the state of Florida. And we need to make sure we protect this sacred bond between parents and teachers, between families and schools, because this is ultimately the key to a good education for every child.”

There were about 5,300 teacher job openings across the state in January, up from about 1,500 five years ago.

Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed lawmakers to raise teacher starting salaries to $47,500, ranked 16th in the nation. Overall, however, the median teacher salary in Florida ranks 49th.

“I think Florida is one of the worst in the country,” Spar said. “There are some studies that show that we now have the second highest number of vacancies in the country.”

Watch the full interview in the video player above.

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