Legislators in Florida are considering a bill that would help retired teachers return to the workforce.
Senate Bill 1482 would eliminate the requirement for retired teachers and other school personnel who have taken part in the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) to have been out of work for six months before starting new employment.
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Taking aim at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, said: “We’ve all heard the governor’s talking points about his investments in teachers and education, but the governor won’t tell you the truth about education in Florida, which is that our state ranks 48th in the nation in average teacher salary, 43rd in the nation in per student spending, and doesn’t even crack the top 10 in average teacher starting salary or average earnings for K-12 education support professionals.”
yeah it’s so weird that a state like Florida can’t find enough teachers to work there
Texas is going to be in the same boat. I know of two other teachers from the high school I teach at doing the same thing I’m doing and leaving the state this summer.
Indiana is facing a teacher drain as well, in part because we pay our teachers terribly. My daughter had a shitty substitute teacher for all of fifth grade. She had no idea how to do things. I had to raise hell about some of the things she did (like punish my daughter for not saying the pledge of allegiance) and my daughter only told me about some of them later (she pushed Trump’s Big Lie on the kids).
And she’s had teachers who aren’t much better in terms of skill.
Edit: Even that so-called teacher quit public school at the end of the year to, appropriately, go work in a Christian private school.
Suuuuper weird. I’m willing to bet that they will settle for substandard teachers to fill the void. Teachers who will be okay with not teaching “challenging” topics like equal rights and evolution
Hell, they are already letting people without teaching certificates teach as long as they are veterans.
Are they really?
Throwing in someone potentially suffering from PTSD into a classroom filled with sociopathic teenagers sounds like a great idea.
I mean – that’s the army. :-D
LOL. Fair enough.
Yup. De Santis is giving veterans 5 year temporary teaching certificates even if they have no other qualifications.
Service guarantees citizenship! Would you like to know more?
This is disingenuous. They don’t just step off the battlefield into teaching.
You have to be a veteran, spent 2 years at college(no degree), and also pass a 4-hour ‘Florida Subject Area Test’ with a score of at least 71% in each subject they plan to teach.
Lmao.
It’s not disingenuous if it’s factual. Thanks for confirming the comments truthfulness.
I suspect the comment was sarcastic given the low requirements they offered.
I have to assume you are being sarcastic but in case you are not (no /s):
That is not much better. The first couple years of college are pretty basic courses that do not help someone know how to teach. Getting a C- on a test in a subject does not really instill confidence that they know the subject well…and can teach. Just because you know a subject does not mean you know shit about teaching.
Cool, the “The Mighty Whitey Righty Curriculum.”
Lol.
Believe me Florida does not make it easy to be a teacher and Ron Desantis’s policies have a lot to do with this.
But the primary factor is pay. Teachers are laughably under paid in Fl. My sister has been teaching for 15 years makes little more than she did when she started. Most of the teachers my two older kids had in their elementary school have left for better paying careers. The number of teachers moving into the profession is not enough to compensate for retiring older teachers and the loss of teachers to other professions.
It’s simple supply and demand. Pay your fucking people and they will stay.
Well, that’s part of the equation.
The other part is: Don’t treat them like shit.