LaBELLE, Florida. One of Florida’s poorest counties is preparing for the new “Airglades” airport, a $300 million cargo hub that could transform its economy.
Local leaders see the project as a generational opportunity that could bring more than 1,400 new high-skilled jobs to their predominantly agricultural community on the edge of the Everglades. But to fulfill its promise, the region’s educators will have to overcome some harsh realities.
One-third of Hendry County’s working-age adults do not have a high school diploma, while nearly half speak a language other than English at home, one of the most advanced in Florida. Before local leaders can prepare residents for engineering and manufacturing jobs, educators must first help them get their GEDs and learn English.
“We have some of God’s most beautiful country that has never been touched by man,” said Michael Swindle, county schools superintendent, and yet “by every metric you would judge a county by, we are No. 1 or No. ”. .2 in the ugly categories.”
As the airport project is approved, community groups and schools are working to fill teacher shortages and make investments in adult education.
The challenges also include some political obstacles. The majority of the county’s workforce is black and Latino. Efforts to adapt education to serve these demographic groups have drawn scrutiny in Florida, where politicians prohibited programs take race and national origin into account when treating people. Educators say that the political context contributes to difficulties in recruiting teachers.
The plan to convert the small, county-owned airport into private ownership still needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which will depend in part on solidifying contracts with suppliers in Latin America to prove its potential as a perishables hub.
Meanwhile, two adult education centers in the county have expanded with support from the FutureMakers Coalition, a community organization that has led educational recycling efforts throughout Southwest Florida. It’s also paying for a counselor to help adults looking to develop new skills and change careers.
Spanish-speaking students packed the adult education center in LaBelle, the county seat of 5,000 people.
Many are working or have children at home, which has forced their instructor, Silvia Gullett, to get creative in meeting their needs. She started a WhatsApp group so students could organize carpools or share childcare duties. If students don’t show up to class, Gullett texts them to resolve the issue. She is not satisfied with easy excuses.
“At the beginning I had some students who didn’t want to continue. I try to tell people that the only person who can stop them is themselves,” said Gullett, who was born in Peru before beginning his teaching career in Florida two decades ago.
At the country’s other adult education center, in Clewiston, sparks are flying as dozens of students in thick gloves and respirator masks work to earn the industry certifications needed to enter the job market. One of them, Samantha Garza, 21, initially studied child care at a community college in Fort Myers but switched after watching YouTube videos about female welders.
“I’m an artistic person, so I already have a steadier hand, and I love being down and dirty doing physical things, so I felt like this would be a career for me,” she said.
Even before the airport arrives, there are still many local employers waiting to hire students. As current employees approach retirement age, Clewiston-based agricultural giant US Sugar has such urgent needs that it has started an internal welding program.
“We’re trying to close the generation gap between mechanics and welders,” said Nathan Hollis, the company’s industrial skills instructor.
Finding enough instructors to offer the training has been a challenge. Swindle had to recruit a US Sugar worker to teach welding and persuade a school bus mechanic to come out of retirement to lead the diesel mechanics program.
Still, the program has been so successful that the county is using proceeds from tuition and donations to open another training center in LaBelle focused on HVAC and plumbing.
There has been controversy surrounding some efforts, including a slide on the topic of “white privilege” shown during a teacher training event led by FutureMakers. This sparked protests from conservative activists who accused the organizers of racism, and a Republican city commissioner in LaBelle suggested it violated the “ Stop acting WAKE ” signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican.
The political climate in Florida has made it difficult to attract elementary and secondary school teachers, according to Swindle. In a state where DeSantis has harnessed culture war passions into his education policies, Swindle said many of his teachers feel unsupported.
“The rhetoric around public education is horrible. It absolutely hurts us,” Swindle said.
Teacher shortage threaten the ability of local schools to teach not just welders and mechanics, but also construction workers, nurses and other professionals to support the influx of people the airport could bring.
“We don’t have a chemistry or physics teacher in high school. We left the positions open for three years and couldn’t even get anyone to apply,” Swindle said.
The county has been running more marketing campaigns to recruit educators and pay paraprofessionals to secure licenses so they can become teachers with the help of a $23 million Good Jobs Challenge grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
There’s a lot at stake in Swindle’s longtime home.
The superintendent knows where the alligators are, sunbathing along the hectares of canals that irrigate the sugarcane fields. He knows which Sabal palm trees make the best cabbage in the swamp, teaching his children to cut palm hearts with his knife, as their ancestors did to survive in times of scarcity.
However, there’s no way to know if all of your recycling efforts will be successful. The airport may not arrive yet, especially if the county can’t prove it will have workers ready to support it.
For now, officials are trying to meet current workforce needs while also testing their ability to create new training programs. Once construction on the airport begins, they know they will have about two years to train a wave of logistics operators, agricultural customs inspectors and other aviation-specific professionals.
“We’re not just talking about an airport,” Swindle said. “We’re looking at this as an opportunity to move the needle on unemployment, on poverty, to a better place.”
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Nick Fouriezos covers the role of college in rural America by Open Campusa nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. Sign up for his newsletter, Mile Markers.
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