reasons behind Florida’s teacher shortage

There is an estimated 55,000 teacher vacancies in the United States. More than 5,000 of those are in Florida, the state leading the nation in the demand for teachers.

While Florida has the most teacher vacancies, the state does not have the most vacancies per 10,000 students. According to that data, that state is West Virginia with 59 vacancies per 10,000 students. Florida has nearly 19 vacancies per 10,000 students.

We asked teachers their top three reasons behind the shortages. Most say pay, others say the hours and some point to politics.

Chris Pagel, the Nassau Teachers Association President, tells us teachers are not encouraging other people to become teachers, because they know how bad it is. He points to changes in state laws about education contributing to the shortage.

He says teaching isn’t the same, and educators have had enough.

“It used to be up to the teacher how to teach. It is not a cookie cutter profession. One size does not fit all. And that’s what the teacher is supposed to do, figure out how to teach that group of students all the way down to that individual student. That’s what we went to school for,” Pagel said.

Young people are not going to school to become teachers anymore. The Pew Research Center says the number of bachelor’s degrees in education has declined over the last few decades.

This could be because of salaries, through Florida has increased them for new teachers. A 28-year teacher in Duval County told us this also contributed to a drop in morale.

RELATED: Florida lawmaker pushes for teacher pay raise, wants $65K starting salary, but educators are skeptical

“We cheered when beginning teacher salaries were raised, we know that is disproportionate compared to the rest of the nation. But then, you know, there wasn’t much allocated for the veteran teachers. It’s pretty disappointing,” Shannon Russell, Duval County Teacher, said.

The Florida Education Association says more than 2,800 teacher vacancies have been filled across the state since the start of the year. This data from Northeast Florida continues showing progress, from the fall of last year to the start of the 2024 school year.