There are 220,000 students in the Hillsborough County Public Schools system—the 8th-largest district in the country. More teachers in this district got their degree from USF than any other school.

And now USF is shutting down its undergrad education program.

Absolute nightmare https://twitter.com/USFOracle/status/1316734033028624387

This decision means that the only high school teaching programs that remain in Hillsborough OR Pinellas Counties—home to 2.5 million people—are:

St. Pete College (public)
Math & Biology

U. Tampa (private)
English
Math
Biology
Social Science
PhysEd

Florida Coll. (private)
Music

By my count that's 16 different subject areas you can no longer get a certificate to teach in Hillsborough or Pinellas Counties. That's not counting Journalism or Speech, which the state phased out (gosh, why would I be sensitive about those two fields)

The University of Tampa is, of course, out of the question for almost every resident of this area because its tuition is $30,000 a year. So they've essentially killed high school teacher instruction in Tampa Bay.

So reading the Times story it’s even more dire. While 40% of teachers here went to USF, students majoring in Ed is down 66%. They really want to push everybody in a vocational school direction, but...education as a study discipline is important! https://trib.al/qiyTeii 

The fact that so few students are headed to college with the goal of being a teacher really reflects how much Republicans have devastated public education in this state over 20 years. And, yes, this process ensures new generations of bad teachers.