Photo credit: Bloomberg News
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
There have been several articles recently on this blog related to the looming shortage of teachers in Virginia. This is a legitimate, and serious, concern.
The tone of many of those articles has been that one of the primary factors behind so many teachers leaving has been the breakdown in discipline resulting from the adoption of “progressive” policies favored by Democrats. For an example, see here.
There is a major fallacy in this argument: the teacher shortage is nationwide, in all areas of the country. An article in today’s Washington Post leads off featuring drastic steps being taken by Florida, Texas, and Arizona to deal with significant shortages of teachers in their states. The leader of the Florida Education Association described the situation in that state as “dire.”
Those three states are led by Republican governors and legislatures and are in no danger of being labelled “progressive” or “woke.” Obviously, there is something going on that is larger than any changes instituted by Virginia Democrats over the last two years.
