ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida is short of around 5,800 teachers.
WATCH: Central Florida schools work to fill pandemic learning gap
It’s a growing problem that leaders have been trying to solve for years.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that he has three ideas designed to recruit and retain teachers.
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This is a problem every school district in the state is dealing with.
When school started back up in Orange County last week, there were dozens of classroom vacancies district staff helped cover.
The governor unveiled a plan he said will address the dire teacher shortage.
“We’ve been dealing with teacher shortages,” said Orange County Public Schools superintendent Maria Vazquez. “We’ve been aggressively recruiting since the end of the last school year.”
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The Florida legislature would still need to approve the plan to recruit teachers that DeSantis detailed on Tuesday.
It includes an apprenticeship program that would allow some Floridians to spend two years learning under experienced teacher mentors.
There are plans to offer a scholarship program to help high-school educators earn master’s degrees.
WATCH: Apprenticeships & master’s degrees: See DeSantis’ new teacher recruitment plan
DeSantis also hopes other incentives will attract more teachers.
The governor’s plan follows another of his initiatives that would allow certain military veterans to get a temporary teaching certificate.
As of this week, the governor’s office said 208 people have applied to the veteran’s program since it launched July 1.
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