From Tallahassee Democrat
Paula Dockery
August 31, 2019

Once again Florida faces a teacher shortage as our public-school students begin the new school year. It’s estimated that the shortage is around 3,500 teachers statewide and affects about 300,000 children, who will have a temporary or substitute teacher — if those can be found. Last year the shortage was about 5,000 teachers, so there is a slight but temporary improvement.

The problem is multi-faceted. New teachers — about 40 percent— are leaving the job after the first five years. The number of college students wanting to become teachers is dwindling. Many experienced teachers are retiring as soon as their pensions kick in.

It doesn’t help that Florida ranks 46th in the nation in teacher pay — an insult to our professional teachers and an embarrassment to us.  Some of Florida’s teachers are going to neighboring states like Georgia to earn a living wage.

Is it any wonder that we have a shortage? The low wage is certainly a major factor but far from the only one.

Why would anybody want to be a teacher in Florida?

The Legislature is continually attacking them and making them feel unappreciated and disrespected. They’re forcing high-stakes testing on them and judging them and their schools on factors beyond their control. They’re micromanaging how and what they teach. They’re diverting much-needed funds from traditional public schools to private schools and for-profit charter schools.

The Department of Education is run by the governor’s hand-picked candidates who get confirmed by the governor’s hand-picked Board of Education — not by the voters, as in the past.

The past few Republican governors, starting with Jeb Bush and including Rick Scott and now Gov. Ron DeSantis, have continued their self-fulfilling prophecy of replacing public education with a privatized system by making it harder for public schools to succeed due to constant meddling and ill-conceived accountability measures. Gov. Charlie Crist was the rare exception — and paid a price for it in a Republican primary.

As a state legislator for 16 years, I bought into the Republican mantra of shaking up public education and demanding accountability. I went along with many of the early reform efforts. For that, I apologize. I came to understand the detrimental effect it was having on our schools, our teachers and most importantly our students.

During that time I visited many schools in the five counties of my Florida Senate district and listened to teachers. That’s why I’m not surprised that they’re leaving the profession. It’s only gotten worse since then.

But it’s important to let the teachers speak for themselves. I recently asked on Facebook to hear from teachers who had left the profession, are thinking of leaving or are staying but can shed some light on why their colleagues have left.

Here is a sampling of what teachers had to say:

• A constant waste of money on new solutions that are never fully implemented and then abandoned.

• Common Core expectations that ignore developmentally appropriate practices in the primary grades. Lack of resources, low salary, outdated equipment that is always breaking, no respect.

• Retired after 36+ years when the joy was sucked out of teaching by the pressure due to test scores. Our creativity was squelched … teachers need to be treated as the professionals they are and must be compensated as professionals.

• Some teachers are leaving because they can’t afford to continue in the profession. I know very few teachers who don’t have a second job.

• Year after year of bonuses and no raises.

• Teachers leave because we’re abused by a punitive system.

• The Legislature thinks it’s OK for staff to carry guns and lay our lives on the line.

• High-stakes tests have never been proven reliable or valid. Teachers continue to be punished when the tests are changed and scores fall across the board. Consistent underfunding and expectation of teachers to pick up the slack.

• Hostile Florida Legislature diverting our taxes to corporate charter schools and testing companies; creating a school grades system that consistently rewards rich schools while punishing poor schools; ignoring teacher, administrative, and school board concerns about over testing. Voters who have consistently empowered the Florida Legislature to enact its 20-year, slow-motion destruction and privatization of public education.

What can we do?

Insist that our representatives and our governor treat teachers as professionals and stop their attack on public schools and their obsession with privatizing it.

As the 2020 election approaches, stand up for teachers and public schools. Only support candidates who promise to stop the assault and micromanaging and become fighters for fully funding our public schools and paying our teachers a salary commensurate with their profession. Don’t support candidates who do the bidding of the special interests that fund their campaigns.

Paula Dockery is a syndicated columnist who served in the Florida Legislature for 16 years as a Republican from Lakeland. She is now a registered NPA. PBDockery@gmail.com.