Daytona Beach, FL - The Sunshine State doesn't seem to be the best state for educators according to a recent study.
That study conducted by WalletHub, known as 2019’s Best & Worst States for Teachers, ranks Florida 33rd overall out of 51 spots.
According to WalletHub, teaching can be a very rewarding career. But, sometimes teachers find themselves overworked and underpaid. To find out where teachers can thrive the most, the financial website evaluated two dimensions using 23 different key metrics across the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
"In some states, teachers are just more fairly paid and treated than in others," said Jill Gonzalez, an analyst with WalletHub. "And those states are less likely to face this revolving door of teacher turnover that we've been seeing lately."
Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for living and working as a teacher.
Those metrics include things like the average starting salary for teachers and average salary, income growth, pension and how long it takes until tenure kicks in.
According to Gonzalez, one of Florida's biggest downfalls was the annual salary for teachers.
"Florida has the fourth-lowest annual salary of any other state for teachers," according to Gonzalez. "And that's even adjusted for cost of living which we know is low there."
The only other states with lower annual salaries than Florida were Maine, Arizona and Hawaii, respectively.
Work environment was another low tick for Florida, according to the study's results. And school safety is what plays a big part in that.
"Teacher safety could certainly do better especially when we're taking into account things like mass shootings over the past couple of years," said Gonzalez.
While Florida hasn't had an event to the scale of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, there have been a number of different weapon-related events.
Just in 2018, Flagler County Schools saw around 12 different incidents where weapons were found on-campus and situations where students threatened other students or teachers.
The top three states for teachers according to WalletHub are North Dakota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The three lowest are Hawaii, New Hampshire and North Dakota.
