Bipartisan Support for Retiring Teachers

With our statewide shortage of teachers has come a shortage of substitutes.

And our Legislature is doing all it can to discourage retiring teachers from becoming the substitutes we need.

For example, our state requires retired teachers to wait a year before they can return to the classroom part-time and earn a paycheck.

So, what consequence does this have for our classrooms? A lot of missed opportunities at great substitutes. I have watched many a friend retire and, within the year they had to wait to substitute, find other jobs or volunteer work — or just enjoy being retired.

Florida Rep. Margaret Good from Sarasota is trying to change this. She’s filed a bill that would allow a retired teacher to begin subbing immediately after retirement. Sen. Joe Gruters intends to file the same bill.

It’s great to see our local legislators working together to help our schools. Better yet, this bill may actually help bring our highly qualified retiring teachers back to our classrooms as substitutes.

Now, maybe we’ll see bipartisan support of bills that tackle Florida’s history of underfunding our public schools ….