The Manufactured Shortage: Driving Teachers Out of the Classroom
Those in charge of public schools and politicians are hypocrites when it comes to the rhetoric surrounding a teacher shortage!
School districts around the country are describing hundreds of classrooms they can’t seem to fill. This has been a manipulated ploy to get rid of veteran teachers and employ alternative, revolving door teachers who will settle for smaller salaries.
For example, in Orlando they are crying that they are short 300 teachers. It is a similar story in the rest of the state. Yet, Orlando signed on to Teach for America in 2015, instead of trying to address the problem of teacher retention.
The State of Florida began courting TFA in 2010. They were not alone, following the lead of the U.S. Department of Education which chipped in with a competitive $50 million grant. This was part of a larger piece of the privatization pie.
From the New York Times:
The $650 million was given out in awards of three levels. The four largest awards of nearly $50 million each went to groups proposing to greatly expand programs, like Teach for America and the KIPP charters, that the department viewed has having been proved successful.
It isn’t like school administrators and politicians don’t know they have a problem retaining teachers in Florida or around the rest of the country. The State treats The Manufactured Shortage: Driving Teachers Out of the Classroom: