JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In classrooms around Florida, veterans could be filling thousands of empty teacher positions.
There is a shortage of thousands of teachers across Florida, including more than 500 vacancies in Duval County Public Schools. One possible solution to fill these spots is HB 573, 'Educator Certification Pathways for Veterans', the state’s newly re-established path for military veterans to earn temporary teaching certificates.
Vincent Buggs says after 30 yeas of service in the military, he wanted to continue helping the community.
“I had a lot of teachers that had fought in world war 2, Korean War and Vietnam,” Vincent Buggs, a program graduate, said. "When I saw the positive things they brought to the table of having served in the military, they brought the value system, disciplined and a lot of different things they brought to the classroom, I kinda wanted to resonate that."
Buggs already had a master's degree and through the program, earned a three- temporary teaching certificate.
The program also offers veterans without a degree a five-year temporary teaching certification after completing 60 college credits and subject-area content exams
It’s a different path than that of most teachers in Duval County classrooms, like Terrie Brady, the president of Duval Teachers United. She graduated from a 4 year college program but she says it’s more than just a degree that makes a teacher.
“We're teachers, we're social workers, we're guidance counselors, you know, a little bit of everything. And most of the time, those become the challenges of the non education, de-greed people, those tend to be some of their challenges, not all but some of their challenges,” Terrie Brady, president Duval Teachers United, said.
The program has faced criticism for allowing veterans to by-pass a four year college education, but a program director says it’s similar to the requirements for substitute teachers and helps with a growing teacher shortage across the state.
“It’s really not changing anything, because right now in this state there’s such a shortage of teachers that districts can not find enough teachers in certain subject areas, but they’re going to put a body in front of that classroom that’s going to be a long term sub, or permanent sub, that person may not have a degree at all,” Ron Burton, a ‘Troops to Teachers' program director, said.
Burton also says a majority of participants in his program enroll in a Bachelors degree program and go on to earn their professional teaching certification during this time they are temporarily certified.
"It does help create a pipeline... So all we're doing is the state legislature allows somebody that is military, that has served this country, now to qualify for a temporary certificate and get full-teacher pay instead of just sub-pay," Burton said.
Brady says any new veteran-hires will help teachers that are already overworked but she’s worried that the program could create an uneven playing field when it comes to requirements of those teaching the youth.
“We have a lot of retired military now in our district, and they do a wonderful job. I'm, I am all about having consistency and requirements…if we’re such short on teachers, why aren't they extending those temporary certificates to everyone,” Brady said.