A Florida school district plans to hire at least 140 teachers from South America to address the issue of staff shortage in their education sector.

According to New York Post, the Osceola County School District has contracted with a firm that will identify qualified candidates who can fill the teaching position in their schools.

"Unfortunately, this is the situation we have, and we have to - and I have to - think outside the box and think creatively," school board Vice Chairman Julius Melendez told WESH.

At least 60 percent of the school district's population is Latino.

The Osceola County will reportedly hire foreign educators through the International Alliance Group. The said group is a contracting company that specializes in foreign recruitment in education.

Reports noted that the candidates will first have to obtain J-1 federal visas following an official screening before being vetted by the Florida Department of Education.

"We are not allowed to contact them directly... The federal government does its screening first and then the Department of Education makes sure their teaching certification is similar to what Florida does," Melendez underscored.

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Florida Teachers Shortage in Osceola County

Fox 35 reported that as of June 2, Osceola County listed at least 424 instructional job openings. However, some of those were reportedly hard to fill.

In February, the state released its annual report on the "Critical Teacher Shortage Areas for the 2022-2023" School year. The said report highlighted the subject areas where there are not enough teachers hired for them.

These subjects include English, English for Speakers of Other Languages, Exceptional Student Education, General Science, Math, Physical Science, and Reading.

School Board Melendez attributed the shortage of teachers to several issues, including the confusion caused by the pandemic, low salaries, and fear of mass shootings.

In February, the National Education Association released a survey data that revealed around 55 percent of the responding educators were thinking of leaving the profession.

90 percent of the respondents said that they were experiencing burnout, while 91 percent of responders reported pandemic-related stress.

Florida's Move to Address Teacher Shortages

Several efforts were made by Florida's local government in connection to the shortages of teachers in the state.

On June 4, a job fair was held in Orlando, which was hosted by the Bureau of Educator Recruitment, Development, and Retention.

Registered districts and charter schools exhibited booths in the main hall of Orange County Convention Center where candidates were interviewed.

In March, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced an $800 million budget that will raise the minimum pay of the teachers and increase veteran teacher salaries in the sunshine state.

With the funding announced by the governor, the starting salary for a teacher in Florida will be $47,000. It can be recalled that the starting salary for a teacher in Florida in 2020 was $40,000.

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This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written By: Joshua Summers

WATCH: Florida's Teacher Shortage - From Florida Watch