Miami seeks to alleviate the teacher crisis in the US by hiring students to teach

Agostina Damiano is a young student who is in her last year of art degree and will soon start high school at Miami Dade College (MDC), in Florida, to become a special education teacher.

But in a short time he will be able to practice his profession while studying for his degree thanks to a joint initiative between this educational institution, one of the largest in the United States, and the Miami-Dade County Public School System.

“I have heard about this program that it gives me the opportunity to study and work since, at least for me, it opens many doors for me because I just arrived,” said the young woman who moved from Argentina to the United States a little over a year ago in Search for new professional opportunities.

national crisis

Both organizations have launched this program as a measure to deal with the lack of teachers in schools, something that occurs throughout the country and that has been accentuated during the coronavirus pandemic. At least 73% of centers across the country have reported problems finding staff, especially in vulnerable areas, according to a report from the Institute of Educational Sciences, which reports directly to the US Department of Education.

“In the poorest neighborhoods, in urban neighborhoods and in rural neighborhoods. The truth is that we have a need for teachers throughout the nation”, explains Carmen Concepción, dean of the School of Education at the MDC in statements to the voice of america.

With the implementation of this initiative, says Concepción, “students will be offered the opportunity to have a job in the school system during the last semester at the MDC”, so that, in this way, it is expected to alleviate the negative effects of this national crisis due to the lack of teachers.

“We do not have enough teachers and we are making a difference by putting creative ways to ensure that we have trained teachers in our classrooms and that we are supporting our students in Miami-Dade County,” the board said.

paid internships

The superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public School System, José Dotres, explains that this type of initiative “is needed throughout the United States” due to the lack of teachers. This program is similar to the internship period that all education science students must pass, but now with the particularity that they will charge for it.

“Typically, to be a teacher there is an internship time that lasts for about 14 weeks and usually it is individuals who enter the degree and they have to spend that time without being paid. Now, with this new model that I am extremely optimistic about, the students who enter this boarding school become resident teachers and start to receive a salary,” Dotres said.

Low salary, the root of the flight of teachers

One of the main problems affecting this teacher flight is low salary. On average, in the United States a teacher in a public school earned $65,090 in 2021, which represents an increase of 1.49% compared to the year, according to a report from the National Center for Education Statistics in the US.

In states like Florida, where the level of life has become more expensive in recent times, the average salary is 49,583, according to the data provided by the aforementioned study.

Given this scenario, these organizations admit that it is very difficult to find personnel willing to work for that price, since on many occasions they either go to private companies or to other states where they offer much more competitive salaries. So many celebrate that this program can somehow cope with this situation.

“We need to put our students, who are already prepared to work. What they only need is one or two courses to complete and they can already do it while they are in the classroom (working)”, concludes Madeline Pumariega, director of the MDC.

All in all, they trust that this initiative will be a success and that it can lead the way for other school districts in the country to promote similar programs to alleviate the flight of teachers.

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