LaBELLE, Fla. (AP) — One of Florida’s poorest counties is preparing for the new Airglades airport, a $300 million cargo hub that could transform the state’s economy.
Local politicians 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 make good on that promise, the region’s educators must overcome some harsh realities.
A third of working-age adults in Hendry County do not have a high school diploma, and nearly half speak a language other than English at home – one of the highest rates in Florida. Before local leaders can prepare residents for jobs in engineering and manufacturing, educators must first facilitate them get their GED and learn English.
“We live in one of the most beautiful pieces of land that God has given us that has never been touched by human hands,” says Michael Swindle, the county’s school superintendent, and yet “by any standard by which you would judge a county, we are either No. 1 or No. 2 in the ugly category.”
As the airport project works toward approval, community groups and schools are working to address the teacher shortage and invest in adult education.
The challenges also include political headwinds. The majority of the district’s workforce is black and Latino. Efforts to target the education system to those demographics have drawn criticism in Florida, where politicians have banned programs that consider race and nationality in how people are treated. Educators say the political context makes recruiting teachers even more arduous.
The plan to convert the tiny, county-owned airport to private ownership still needs approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which depends in part on striking deals with suppliers in Latin America to demonstrate the airport’s potential as a hub for perishable goods.
Meanwhile, two adult learning centers in the county have expanded with support from the FutureMakers Coalition, a community organization that promotes retraining efforts throughout Southwest Florida. It also funds a counselor to facilitate adults who want to learn new skills and change careers.
Spanish-speaking students filled the adult education center in LaBelle, the county seat of 5,000 residents.
Many of them work or have children at home, forcing their teacher, Silvia Gullett, to get innovative to accommodate their needs. She created a WhatsApp group so students can carpool or share childcare. When students don’t show up for class, Gullett texts them to solve the problem. She doesn’t settle for effortless excuses.
“In the beginning, there were some students who didn’t want to continue. I try to tell people that the only thing they can stop is themselves,” says Gullett, who was born in Peru and began her teaching career in Florida two decades ago.
At the country’s other adult education center, in Clewiston, sparks fly as dozens of students in stout gloves and respirators work toward the industry certifications needed to enter the workforce. One of them, 21-year-old Samantha Garza, initially studied child care at a community college in Fort Myers but changed her course after watching YouTube videos about female welders.
“I’m an artistic person, so I have a steady hand and I love being physical, so I felt like this would be a career for me,” she said.
Even before the airport is completed, there are plenty of local employers waiting to hire the students. With current employees nearing retirement age, Clewiston-based agricultural giant US Sugar is in such dire need of workers that it has launched an in-house welding program.
“We’re trying to bridge the generation gap between mechanics and welders,” said Nathan Hollis, an industrial trainer at the company.
Finding enough instructors to provide training was a challenge, so Swindle had to hire a worker from U.S. Sugar as a welding instructor and bring a school bus mechanic out of retirement to lead the diesel mechanic program.
Nevertheless, the program was so successful that the district is using tuition fees and donations to open another training center in LaBelle with a focus on heating, ventilation and air conditioning technology and plumbing technology.
Some of those efforts have been controversial, including a slide on white privilege shown during a teacher training event run by FutureMakers. It sparked an outcry from conservative activists who accused the organizers of racism, and a Republican city commissioner in LaBelle said the slide violated the Stop WOKE Act, which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed.
Florida’s political climate has made it arduous to recruit K-12 teachers, according to Swindle. In a state where DeSantis has exploited culture war passions in his education policies, many of his teachers feel unsupported, Swindle said.
“The rhetoric around public education is terrible. It’s really hurting us,” Swindle said.
The teacher shortage threatens the ability of local schools to train not only welders and mechanics, but also construction workers, nurses and other skilled workers who could handle the influx of people that could come through the airport.
“We don’t have a chemistry or physics teacher at the high school. The positions have been open for three years and we can’t even get anyone to apply,” Swindle said.
The county has launched additional marketing campaigns to recruit educators and paid assistants to obtain licenses so they can become teachers with the support of a $23 million Good Jobs Challenge grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
There is a lot at stake for Swindle’s longtime home.
The overseer knows where the alligators lie and sun themselves along the huge canals that irrigate the sugar cane fields. He knows which sabal palms produce the best swamp cabbage, and teaches his sons how to exploit his knife to cut out palm hearts, as their ancestors did to survive lean times.
But it’s still uncertain whether all of his retraining efforts will be successful. It’s possible the airport won’t be built anyway, especially if the county can’t prove it has the workforce to support it.
For now, officials are trying to meet current staffing needs while testing their ability to set up new training programs. Once construction on the airport begins, they know they’ll have about two years to train a wave of logisticians, agricultural customs inspectors and other aviation professionals.
“This is not just about an airport,” Swindle said. “We see this as an opportunity to improve unemployment and poverty.”
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Nick Fouriezos covers the role of colleges in rural America for Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. Subscribe to his newsletter, Mile Markers.
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