The Florida Department of Education has moved to allow military veterans and their spouses without a college degree to serve as teachers in public schools a month after state Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation allowing the practice.
The new directive permits military veterans and their spouses who completed at least 48 months of military service to receive a five-year certificate allowing them to teach in the state’s public schools, even if they have not completed a college degree.
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But the program does not come without prerequisites. Prospective veteran-teachers must have completed at least 60 hours of college credit while maintaining a 2.5 GPA. Candidates must also pass a Florida Department of Education subject exam to teach certain subjects, according to the Gainesville Sun.
The program comes amid a nationwide shortage of teachers that has been felt in every state. Attempts to address the shortage have sparked several outside-the-box ideas, most notably in New Mexico, where state Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham volunteered as a substitute teacher and mobilized the National Guard to serve as substitute teachers.
But the Florida plan to allow veterans without a college degree to teach earned the ire of local teachers unions and some school boards, which said the program was a case of “lowering the bar” for the qualifications to be a teacher.
Carmen Ward, president of the Alachua County teachers union, told the Gainesville Sun that “[educators] are very dismayed that now someone with just a high school education can pass the test and can easily get a five-year temporary certificate.”
“There are many people who have gone through many hoops and hurdles to obtain a proper teaching certificate,” she said.
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Union opposition to efforts to address the shortage of teachers is not unique to Florida. In December, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill allowing school staff to serve as substitute teachers despite opposition by the Michigan Education Association to the measure.
