July 8, 2022 - The Florida Capital Star

Florida School Districts Continue to Face Teacher Shortages

July 8, 2022July 7, 2022 Steve Stewart

The 2022-23 K-12 school year begins in less than two months and Florida school districts are facing teacher shortages.

As of this week, Duval County Public Schools reported 529 vacancies for certified teachers, up 23% — nearly 100 positions — compared to the start of last school year. This year’s vacancies are almost double the number Duval saw at the beginning of 2020-21 school year.

In addition, Orange County Public Schools lists over 200 K-12 teacher openings and Brevard County Public Schools lists 235 teacher vacancies.

And while the numbers are daunting they should not be surprising.

According to surveys by the Florida Education Association(FEA), the number of teacher vacancies have increased a 104% since August 2019. In August 2019, the FEA reported there were 2,135 advertised positions. This number increased to 2,962 in August 2020 and ballooned to 4,359 by January 2022.

Commentary: The Biden Bust Could be Coming to a Neighborhood Near You Soon

July 8, 2022July 7, 2022 Florida Capital Star Staff

For many readers, the above title will conjure up memories of the 2008 housing crash caused by the proliferation of subprime mortgages and the subsequent tsunami of defaults. But a better corollary for the coming Biden bust is the Carter crash that occurred three decades earlier. During the final two years of Carter’s term, sales of existing and new homes collapsed because the Fed was forced to raise interest rates sharply to get double-digit inflation under control. This, in turn, produced double-digit mortgage rates that priced millions of potential buyers out of the market.

National Association of Scholars’ Civics Alliance Releases ‘American Birthright’ Model Social Studies Standard

July 8, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

A coalition of organizations and individuals convened by the National Association of Scholars (NAS) has released its model social studies standard, “American Birthright,” to teach America’s foundational history of liberty.

Florida Seeking Abortion Law Resolution at State Supreme Court

July 8, 2022July 7, 2022 Grant Holcomb

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s (R) office is requesting that the legal fight between pro-abortion groups and the state be fast-tracked to the Florida Supreme Court. The 15-week abortion ban in question, was recently put back into effect after an appeal from the state.

Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper issued a temporary injunction Tuesday morning to block the law, but the appeal to Cooper’s decision is what led to its reinstatement.

National Education Association President: ‘Radicalized Supreme Court Issuing Decisions That Do Not Reflect Views or Values of America’

July 8, 2022July 7, 2022 Susan Berry, PhD

The president of the nation’s largest teachers’ union told union delegates at the start of the Representative Assembly (RA) Sunday that 2016 was the year of a “fateful election,” one that made clear the U.S. Supreme Court would become “radicalized.”

In her keynote address Sunday in Chicago, National Education Association (NEA) President Becky Pringle targeted former President Donald Trump for his choices in appointing Supreme Court justices.