JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Education Association (FEA), the state’s largest teachers union, said there are more than 7,500 advertised openings for teachers and educational support staff halfway through the school year.
According to FEA, new teacher vacancy numbers show that halfway through the school year there are still 4,096 advertised teacher vacancies in Florida schools and 3,457 support staff vacancies, for a total of 7,553 vacancies across the K-12 system.
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The good news, according to FEA data, is more than 2,800 teacher vacancies have been filled around the state since the start of the school year, and school districts in Northeast Florida specifically have made good progress.
| District | Teacher vacancies as of 8/8/23 | Teacher vacancies as of 1/3/24 |
|---|---|---|
| Alachua | 130 | 68 |
| Baker | 26 | 11 |
| Bradford | 15 | 15 |
| Clay | 81 | 28 |
| Columbia | 16 | 6 |
| Duval | 105 | 32 |
| Flagler | 24 | 19 |
| Nassau | 20 | 19 |
| Putnam | 23 | 17 |
| St. Johns | 380 | 19 |
| Union | 5 | 9 |
But FEA added that while the vacancy numbers have improved from August 2023, new vacancy numbers only account for posted and advertised vacancies, meaning the number could be greater.
“The fact of the matter is, Florida — a state that has seen repeated years with record surplus and touts high rankings in ‘educational freedom’ — is not moving the needle on teacher shortages fast enough. A shortage of more than 4,000 teachers is more than the population of teachers in 19 of Florida’s smallest counties combined. Four thousand teacher vacancies means that there are potentially hundreds of thousands of students in Florida who do not have access to a full-time teacher,” FEA said in a news release on Wednesday.
FEA called on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and state lawmakers to make real investments that would help make Florida educational ecosystem one of the strongest in the nation, like raising teacher pay and making investments in mental health, student safety, working conditions and getting fringe politics out of the classroom.
“We’ve all heard the Governor’s talking points about his investments in teachers and education, but the Governor won’t tell you the truth about education in Florida, which is that our state ranks 48th in the nation in average teacher salary, 43rd in the nation in per student spending, and doesn’t even crack the top ten in average teacher starting salary or average earnings for K-12 education support professionals,” said Andrew Spar, President of the FEA.