Stress, expectations make teaching in FL a tough sell.

[OrlandoDem2]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.gainesville.com/news/20190309/stress-working-conditions-make-teaching-tough-sell%3ftemplate=ampart

It’s one thing to say teachers have always been paid modestly. The problem is the demands have escalated to a ridiculous level. It’s impossible to do the job.

Mandates, laws, high stakes testing. It’s all too much. Here’s another article that shows what everyone knows but the GOP won’t acknowledge. Pay is not commensurate with expectations.

People are walking away and the college students aren’t there to take up the job. Serves the state right!

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Absolutely. In many states this is happening. Politics is overriding actual requirements of ...

the fundamentals of reading, writing, and arithmetic. I guess in some states, they want to have a poorly educated population to flip hamburgers, clean the toilets, etc.

[kimbutgar]

2. And also to be stupid enough to vote repuke.

[Ohiogal]

3. Republicans strangle school funding and teacher pay.

and make the public schools "Public Enemy Number 1". Then they claim public schools aren't working.

[Sherman A1]

4. At some point I see significant changes in how we educate our children

between gun violence, technology advances and as you point out low pay along with the stress of the job I see a move towards distance learning with the traditional school house still important but dramatically changed in how it is used. Education will in many ways change just as other careers are changing before our very eyes.

[exboyfil]

5. Part of the shattering of the country

This advances the GOP agenda. When you can funnel money to advance your own private school agenda, public schools are doomed.

[BigmanPigman]

6. As an urban teacher in CA I know this is 100% accurate.

CA is one of the lowest in the country for how much money each student gets from the state. Our huge district got a businessman superintendent in 1999 and within 3 years 50% of the support staff and teachers were gone, never to be replaced. Who does the work of these people when they are gone? The ones who are left. The pay was already low, then the work load increased 30%. Then the recession hit and for over 5 years we had no COLA increase and rising health insur co-pays and were told that if we strike they would issue more pink slips.

Meanwhile we had to teach and do more in less time as teaching to the test was what we did almost all day, even in first grade. Don't forget all the new tech to constantly learn and teach as well as parents who spoil their kids and administrators who support the parents instead of the teachers. The environment is almost toxic.

When I started teaching one out of three teachers quit withing their first five years in a real classroom. That number is down to the first three years now. I was constantly sick and had to be hospitalized twice since the district was too cheap to hire subs. My classroom had to be torn down to black mold. Kids were always sick too.

I told all my high school volunteers not to become teachers. We all told them this, some of them listened.