TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A program Governor Ron DeSantis introduced over the summer to make it easier for veterans to become teachers has landed with a thud after six months, according to a new report.
Military.com reports the program has hired a total of seven veterans to become teachers across 70-plus school districts in the state. For comparison, the state reported thousands of teacher openings in the state just before the start of the current school year.
The DeSantis program is officially called the "Military Veterans Certification Program" gives veterans a temporary teaching certificate if they complete four years of service, earn 60 college credits, and keep a GPA of at least 2.5.
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Military.com reported the program targeted veterans who haven't earned their bachelor's degrees, which drew criticism from educators.
Reporters for Mliitary.com started looking into the program in September and were initially told "480 applications" had been received. The day before publishing its report, Military.com was told by Florida's Department of Education the program had "seven veterans working as teachers" out of 538 applications.
Update:
The Florida Department of Education issued a statement to ABC Action News about the Military.com report that read:
Florida is proud to offer the Military Veterans Certification Pathway, a pathway that offers a five-year temporary educator certificate to eligible veterans. After receiving unanimous bipartisan support during Florida’s 2022 Legislative Session, Governor DeSantis signed Senate Bill 896 into law providing a five-year temporary certificate to eligible veterans through the Military Veterans Certification Pathway.
The Department has received over 500 applications for this pathway which are being processed in a first-come first-served manner just like all applications received by the Bureau of Educator Certification. Currently, there are seven veterans teaching via this pathway in the following school districts, and we expect may more will be in the classroom within the coming year: Volusia, Clay, Brevard, Monroe, Okaloosa, Citrus and Manatee.
There has been a false media narrative suggesting the Military Veterans Certification Pathway was created to “fix” a teacher shortage. This is not true. The purpose of this new pathway was to value the unique experience military service provides while simply offering additional time for these veterans to obtain a bachelor’s degree and other requirements to receive a full professional educator certification.
It upholds Florida’s standards for educator certification and requires veterans to demonstrate subject area mastery as this is crucial for providing high-quality instruction to students.
We commend the Legislature and Governor DeSantis for establishing the Military Veterans Certification Pathway. It is providing employment for certain veterans as teachers in Florida when before they would not have this opportunity. This new pathway was created to support military veterans in finding employment as teachers in Florida, and it is doing just that.
