Matt Bush, FISM News
The 2022-2023 school year is opening across America this month, and the National Education Associate (NEA) estimates there is a shortage of about 300,000 teachers across America.
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) outlined a plan at a press conference yesterday that he believes will help tackle this potential crisis in his state. Highlighting this plan is making sure that Florida is a place where “woke goes to die.”
Florida is currently experiencing an 8,000 teacher shortfall, even though nearly every public school in the state has already begun classes.
During his announcement, DeSantis noted how his administration has fought to keep leftist ideologies, such as transgenderism, sexualization of children, and critical race theory, out of Florida classrooms.
“Obviously in the classroom, we’ve battled a lot of ideologies. What I’ve said is the state of Florida is the place where woke goes to die,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to let this state descend into some type of woke dumpster fire. We’re going to be following common sense, we’re going to be following facts.”
Gov. DeSantis Announces New Teacher Recruitment Initiatives https://t.co/WyA63dpJBP
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 16, 2022
According to the Governor’s website, the initiative includes three proposals for the 2023 Legislative Session that include: “a recruitment initiative targeted to bring retired first responders and retired veterans to the classroom through fee waivers and bonuses; an apprenticeship program that provides bonuses to teachers for mentoring aspiring teachers with an associate’s degree to gain hands-on teaching experience; and a scholarship program for K-12 teachers interested in teaching dual enrollment courses on high school campuses.”
Today, I announced three new proposals for the 2023 Legislative Session that are focused on recruiting more teachers to support our students in the classroom.
We are committed to having the best and brightest in our classrooms educating our students. pic.twitter.com/ochWGfOe6a
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 17, 2022
Last month, DeSantis unveiled a plan that would allow military veterans to become classroom teachers without a bachelor’s degree as long as they had at least 60 hours of college credit and four or more years of active service. As of this writing, at least 208 veterans have applied for the program.
Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, has been an outspoken critic of DeSantis’s new plan.
“He’s talking about bonuses again, which is our governor’s favorite thing to talk about bonuses rather than a real investment,” Spar said. “He’s talking about asking teachers, experienced teachers who he maligns every day, to become mentors, yet he doesn’t talk about taking some stuff off their plate. They are overwhelmed. They are overworked. This is a political plan, this is not a sustainable plan that truly gets at the teacher and staff shortage in real solutions.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Nikki Fried released a statement against the plan as well.
“Let me be clear: We should not be lowering the bar for teachers in Florida. Instead of paying teachers what they’re worth and agreeing to stop politicizing their jobs, DeSantis is trying to let Floridians with no experience and minimal training teach our kids,” she said.
DeSantis disagreed with his critics.
“These three initiatives will build on our efforts to increase recruitment and retention of high-quality teachers. Great teachers don’t become great teachers because they are sitting in a university lecture hall. What makes a teacher great is being in the classroom, watching other teachers, and seeing what works. With today’s announcement, we will be helping more teachers gain that critical firsthand experience and we will be recruiting first responders and veterans to continue their service in the classroom. Our students will greatly benefit from these programs,” Gov. DeSantis said.