Current, former teachers explain Orange County's teacher shortage

Like much of Florida, Orange County Public Schools started the school year with a shortage of teachers. 

The compounding factors of low pay, ever-more-intense scrutiny of classroom instruction by noneducators and the COVID-19 pandemic (read: the state's pushback against mitigating the spread) have made classroom instruction in Florida increasingly undesirable. The school year has just started and OCPS currently has over 200 open listings for instructors on their jobs site.

There are over 4,000 vacancies in public schools statewide. The crisis has pushed Gov. Ron DeSantis to try novel ways to paper over the lack of teacher attraction and retention in the state.

Florida has one of the worst average salaries for teachers in the entire US, frequently competing for last with states like Mississippi. The average salary for a Florida teacher hovers below $50K and well below the national average of over $60K.  Rather than fixing that, lawmakers have pushed allowing people with fewer qualifications to teach.

Former and current teachers recently took to Orlando's subreddit to vent their frustrations over the shortage and its causes. Check out a few of their testimonies.