Miami-Dade Public Schools rolls grow, teachers hunted

As the supply of new teachers is shrinking, student enrollment in public schools within Miami-Dade County is soaring after the 2021-2022 academic year saw the lowest numbers observed in the last decade.

After a steady seven-year decline, a spring survey shows enrollment in Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) increased nearly 2% from a record low at the end of 2021. The rise, due in part to a sharp uptick in immigrant enrollment, has the county’s school system working to secure additional resources amid a teacher shortage.

Archives from the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) report student data dating back to 2012 when county-wide enrollment was at 354,262.

Totals peaked in 2015 with 357,579 students recorded. It has decreased by almost 8% since to a 10-year low with only 329,575 students enrolled in 2021.

In the fall of 2022, enrollment started climbing. By the end of the 2022-2023 academic year, 340,287 students were enrolled in the county, according to a springtime survey from the FLDOE. This trend is expected to continue, and numbers are forecast to rise as Miami’s population expands.

Contributing to the increase is an influx of immigrants, with the highest growth among students from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

“Just last year in our public school system, we had over 14,000 new children, 10,000 of which came from four countries of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti,” said Miami Mayor Francis Suarez in a May interview on CBS.

The numbers referenced by the mayor appeared to have come from 2022-2023 data shared at a school board meeting in January. Out of 30,000 newly enrolled students, 20,000 are immigrant students, according to an updated May report from WLRN.

Miami’s schools are already dealing with a deficit of teachers and the influx of new students will require more resources. In August 2022, the county school system was short more than 200 teachers.

School board members as well as superintendent José Dotres have traveled to the state and national capitals, Tallahassee and Washington, DC, to lobby for more assistance.

Local institutions have also been working with the school district to address the teacher shortage. On June 13, Miami Dade College (MDC) officially announced its new Teacher Academy Dual Enrollment Program.

As part of the fast-track path, high school students can take courses to earn college credit geared toward completing a teaching degree focused in one of four areas: early childhood education, exceptional student education, secondary math or secondary science.

The goal is that students will have completed their associate degree by the time they graduate from high school, go on to finish their bachelor’s at MDC and potentially start working in the school district.

MDC and M-DCPS hope to launch the new program this upcoming school year, establishing new teacher pipelines and increasing Miami’s supply of dedicated, academic professionals to meet the needs of the growing student population.