Teachers are learning hard lessons now

May 5, 2008

Once a year, teachers across America get a tip of the hat and an apple or two during Teacher Appreciation Week.

This year it runs through May 10. But with what teachers in Florida and elsewhere across the nation are facing, perhaps we should more honestly call it Teacher Depreciation Week.

Right here in Central Florida, hundreds of teaching positions are being eliminated because of state budget cuts. After years of complaining that we didn´t have enough teachers, suddenly we have too many -- or at least more than state legislators say we can afford.

Some, like one Deltona-area teacher, moved his young family to Florida for a job. But after a couple of years in the classroom, he worries he now may be let go.

Teachers with years of experience are worried, too. Those who took advantage of the Deferred Retirement Option Program, which was designed to keep retirement-age teachers in the classroom, now find they may be booted out the door.

One longtime teacher told the Seminole School Board last week that her principal warned her it might happen, but she wasn´t sure until a voice came over the intercom to her classroom and said, “You need to have your room cleared out as soon as the school year is over. How many boxes do you want?”

Copyright © 2008, Orlando Sentinel