By Rob Lorei
On Radioactivity Wednesday we first looked at the local fight for a livable, $15 an hour wage that took two fast food workers to McDonalds’ headquarters to protest at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Our Guests Bleu Rainer and Gail Rogers, who respectively work for Checkers and McDonalds’ in Tampa, joined home care, child care and other low-wage workers who are demanding a $15 an hour minimum wage and a union.
Then we looked at the looming teacher shortage that is facing Florida. For this upcoming school year, Hillsborough County is looking to fill 800 new teaching while Sarasota is looking for 250 new teachers; and Pasco 185. Our next guest Wendy Bradshaw, a former Polk County teacher, said that a slew of teachers leaving the profession for retirement or because they are unhappy with their salary and working conditions. In the resignation letter to the Polk County School district that went viral after Bradshaw posted it on Facebook, she wrote that teachers are forced to teach material for standardized testing that is beyond students capabilities.
One Response to “The looming teacher shortage in Florida; low-wage workers demand a living wage at McDonald’s HQ in Chicago”
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There will continue to be a teacher shortage in Florida until we change the culture of government. The executive, legislative, and judicial branches are not friendly to traditional public schools! They rather favor for profit charters and voucher schools. Until the majority of people in Florida, and other states, determine to take back their schools by electing people who really believe in the value of public education, not just in words but more importantly their actions, we are stuck with the unqualified making stupid decisions. The governor just held a higher education summit without the input of college faculty members! Shame, shame, shame. And the chair of the senate higher education committee is a college dropout! Wake up Florida, stop electing this type of individuals to public office.