by Chris Cumo

Citrus County School District in Citrus County, Florida has turned to distance education to entice new teachers to its schools, according to Gail Grimm, the District’s Director of Planning. The shortage of graduates with teaching certificates has led the District to recruit people from business, allowing them to take on-line education courses from any accredited Florida college or university while they teach under the auspices of a temporary certificate. Participants in the program can earn a teaching certificate without setting foot on a college campus, and Citrus will pay nearly half of the tuition. Other Florida districts have similar programs mandated by state law.

Florida’s move toward distance education does not surprise David McConnell, who has taught education courses at the University of Hartford in Connecticut, Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, and Boston University. He has seen increasing numbers of teachers earn their MAs on-line. In Kennebunkport, Maine, where McConnell lives, teachers save themselves a four-hour commute by taking graduate classes on-line from the University of Maine at Orono.

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