Florida school district votes to hire 140 teachers from South America amid US shortage

A school board in Florida has voted to bring in dozens of educators from South America.

The Osceola County School Board voted Tuesday to hire dozens of foreign instructors to make up for the shortage of teachers domestically, according to local reports.

The board voted unanimously to hire 140 instructors from South America. 

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The county is reportedly hiring these foreign educators through the International Alliance Group, a contracting company that specializes in foreign recruitment in education.

IAG states on their website that they “provide the full continuum of services starting with preparation of all application materials and coordination with recruitment operations in target countries.”

“IAG capitalizes on our years of immigration expertise and management experience to make this process as easy as possible for you,” the company adds.

Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, education departments were experiencing manpower shortages. After the pandemic, and now after the Uvalde shooting, teachers are less certain of their commitment to the career path.

These school staffing difficulties are being felt nationwide.

“When the Texas American Federation of Teachers (AFT) surveyed its members in November, an astounding 66% of teachers and school staff who responded said they were considering leaving their profession,” said Texas AFT President Zeph Capo in an editorial for Fox News. ” And that was before the Omicron COVID surge in January and before the devastating attack on the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.”

 

Capo provided a list of factors pushing educators out of the work force, including extensive test prep, standardized testing dysfunction, and elected officials’ growing demonization of the public school system.

“Most other states are experiencing the same challenges in retaining teachers. We’ve known that even before the chaos and instability of the pandemic, educators were suffering from overwork and low wages. But the pandemic exacerbated the problem and brought us to the crises we face now for teacher retention.”

Fox News’ Zeph Capo contributed to this report.