By David L. Snelling

Miami – Florida’s teaching shortage crisis seems to be on the mend, as the state welcomes more educators ahead of the 2025-2026 school year.

The Florida Department of Education announced a 17. 7 percent in reduction of teacher vacancies, lower than the 2024-2025 school year.

In 2024, teacher vacancies for the 2024-2025 school year were 13.3 percent lower than first day vacancies for the 2023-2024 school year.

The drop in vacancies followed the previous year’s drop of more than 8 percent in comparison to the previous year.

Compounded with the reduction in 2024-2025, teacher vacancies have decreased by nearly 30 percent over the last two years.

The nation has been gripped by the teacher shortage crisis for the past five years, as educators left the field in record numbers due to low-paying salaries, long hours and too many demands for the job.

In 2023 and 2024, Florida led the nation with over 5,000 vacancies during the post COVID-19 pandemic, which impacted school districts, especially Miami-Dade which is the third largest in the U.S. and Broward County as the sixth.

According to a study by Teachers of Tomorrow, low pay, lack of resources and a stressful work environment drove most teachers away.

In 2023, the average salary for teachers in the U.S. was $68,000, which is 8 percent less than the average salary for all workers in the nation.

Florida wants to be the teaching hub for the nation and offers incentives to boost its teaching population including signing bonuses, professional development programs, partnerships and teacher training, all to improve practices and enhance the quality of teaching and learning.

Florida has allocated more than $5.9 billion to boost teacher’s and other instructional personnel salaries, and expanded the number of pathways for qualified individuals to enter the teaching profession.

Through the Teacher Apprenticeship Program, more than 80 individuals are receiving on-the-job training from veteran teachers while they pursue their teaching certification and nearly 500 have applied for the program.

In addition, more than 100 military veterans have begun their teaching career through a temporary teaching certificate through the Military Veterans Certification Pathway and nearly 700 have applied for the program.

“Florida continues to attract the best teaching talent because we have raised teacher pay, empowered our teachers in the classroom and created new pathways for Floridians to enter the teaching profession,” said Commissioner of Education Anastasios Kamoutsas. “While the teachers unions use the same, tired tactics in an attempt to smear Florida’s education system, we are focused on providing our teachers with the tools they need to succeed, and the data show our approach is working.”

Former Florida Education Association President Andrew Spar said political interference by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature drove half of the teacher population away.

Teachers were caught in an uproar over the Stop W.O.K.E. Act, “Don’t Say Gay” law and prohibited from calling students by their preferred names.

Spar warned that more political interference will push Florida back to the teacher shortage.

“Teachers are not encouraging other people to become teachers because they know how bad it is,” said Spar.

However, DeSantis placed the blame on school districts for delaying teachers’ salaries hikes and teacher unions’ defiant stance on better working conditions for educators.

“They would withhold that as a bargaining chip to be able to extract other things for their agenda that had nothing to do with increasing teacher salaries,” DeSantis said during a news conference. “That is not right, and we don’t want it to happen this year. The schools are not the place for your agendas.”

Like most states, Florida’s teaching shortage started during the pandemic as teachers’ workload increased, as the nation faced 300,000 teaching vacancies.

Most teachers were told they would receive hefty bonuses and pay increases for their efforts during the pandemic but that never came to fruition, causing frustration and outrage.

Some teachers decided to quit, including those whose careers spanned 15 years.

Teachers in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties left the field because their salaries weren’t enough to afford the cost-of-living increases including housing.

The average rent for the tri-county area was $2,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, or $3,023 for a rented home with three bedrooms.

Miami-Dade Public Schools is welcoming 300 new teachers for the new school year, earning between $50,000 and $60,000 a year.

Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Dr. Jose Dotres gave the new teachers a pep talk during a welcoming ceremony.

“You can build a career with us, so congratulations for joining us,” he said.