TAMPA, Fla. — As the school year starts up again, every county in the state is facing teacher shortages.
The Florida Education Association released the latest data on the vacancies that come from each school district's website in the state. They perform a count of advertised job openings twice a year, in August and in January.
In a news release, the association pointed to more than 5,000 instructional vacancies, which is a decrease from August 2023. Educational support staff vacancies total about 4,800, which is also a decrease from the start of the last school year.
"It is not the school’s fault. We simply aren’t being funded well enough— we are being set up to fail,” said David Finkle, a high school English teacher in DeLand, in the release.
In Hillsborough County, the number of teacher vacancies is the highest in the state at 742. The total number of vacancies including support staff is 1,270, which comes in at the second-highest for total vacancies. Palm Beach County comes in at No. 1 because they have more support staff vacancies, which include non-specialized teacher's aides, paraprofessionals, ESOL aides and interpreters, bus drivers, among many other roles.
Here is what the numbers look like for other Tampa Bay-area counties:
- Citrus County
- Teacher openings: 36
- Support staff openings: 21
- Hernando County
- Teacher openings: 96
- Support staff openings: 13
- Highlands County
- Teacher openings: 32
- Support staff openings: 20
- Hillsborough County
- Teacher openings: 742
- Support staff openings: 528
- Manatee County
- Teacher openings: 74
- Support staff openings: 88
- Pasco County
- Teacher openings: 159
- Support staff openings: 118
- Pinellas County
- Teacher openings: 88
- Support staff openings: 126
- Polk County
- Teacher openings: 321
- Support staff openings: 218
- Sarasota County
- Teacher openings: 106
- Support staff openings: 30
The association called on lawmakers to increase funding by $2.5 billion annually for the next seven years to pay teachers more and hire more mental health specialists to address the academic needs of students.
What is the state government doing to pay teachers more?
Gov. Ron DeSantis included $1.25 billion in the 2024-25 budget to increase teacher pay. However, the association said this is only about $200 million more for teacher salaries in the coming school year by comparing the $1.25 billion to the $1.05 billion that was in last year's budget for teacher pay, according to a news release.
"The Governor’s announcement is at best, fuzzy math and at worst, a political stunt meant to intentionally mislead teachers in the state and once again shift blame," the education association's release read.
On the other hand, the governor touted how Florida has invested more than $4 billion in teacher pay increases since 2019.
“While the naysayers use the same tactics year after year to discredit Florida’s success in Education, once again the numbers speak for themselves. I am proud that Florida’s teacher vacancies continue to decline and I am confident that this is a direct result of the forward-thinking policies that Governor Ron DeSantis has championed," said Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. in a statement on Monday.
What are local governments doing?
Focusing on Hillsborough County, school officials have been pushing to put a property tax referendum increasing teacher pay on the November ballot. The referendum would tax property an extra dollar per thousand of its assessed value. The district says it'll raise close to $200 million a year and add $6,000 to each teacher and administrator's salary. All other school employees would receive $3,000 extra per year.
In July, commissioners voted 4-3 to delay that referendum until 2026 but a judge ordered the referendum to be on the ballot. Now, the county is waiting for a decision from an appeals court to make the final decision.