Shortage of teachers heading into the new school year
MIAMI - With the start of the new year coming up, a shortage of teachers is still impacting Miami-Dade and Broward public schools.
New figures from Miami-Dade schools show that they have 17,385 teachers for this school year and there are 224 openings. The school system has hired 550 new teachers. A spokeswoman for Broward Public schools says there are about 15,000 teachers on staff for the upcoming school year and 221 teacher openings.
Broward students return to classes on August 16th. Miami-Dade students return to class on August 17th.
To combat the problem of teacher shortages, both districts have held hiring events in hopes of attracting new faces.
Anna Fusco, President of the Broward Teachers Union, said more needs to be done to attract and retain good teachers.
"The cost of living everywhere has just gone up, so it's just making it hard to where they feel they need to go and look different for different types of jobs or careers that just the pay better," she said.
Fusco said treatment is another reason many are opting out of the profession.
"We teach what the state mandates, we go by standards, we go buy curriculum, and that's what we are bringing forward to our students and we teach in a loving and nurturing way," she said.
As far as the consequences of starting off the new school year with open teaching positions, Fusco said adjustments will have to be made at the expense of the teachers in the classrooms.
"Fewer teachers mean more impact on the teachers that are staying. Class sizes are going to increase, they will have higher expectations for meeting the needs, (they will) put in more hours if they have to, and probably make less pay because your days are extended into the night and the weekend, so it's taking away from their own personal time," said Fusco.
According to the state's Department of Education, the average starting salary of a teacher is around $47,000 a year.