A new airport could boost the economy of a rural part of Florida. Will the squad be ready?

LaBELLE, Fla. — One of Florida’s poorest counties is preparing to build the new “Airglades” airport, a $300 million cargo hub that could transform its economy.

Local leaders see the project as a generational opportunity, one that could create more than 1,400 new high-skilled jobs in their largely agricultural community on the edge of the Everglades. But to keep their promises, the region’s educators will have to overcome harsh realities.

A third of working-age adults in Hendry County do not have a high school diploma, while nearly half speak a language other than English at home, among the highest in Florida. Before local leaders can prepare residents for jobs in engineering and manufacturing, educators must first help them earn their GED and learn English.

“We have some of God’s finest country that has ever been touched by man,” said Michael Swindle, the county’s superintendent of schools, and yet “by every metric you would judge a county by , we are either No. 1 or No. 1.” .2 in the ugly categories.

As the airport project moves toward approval, community groups and schools are working to address the teacher shortage and invest in adult education.

Challenges also include some political headwinds. Most of the county’s workforce is black and Latino. Efforts to tailor education to these demographic groups have gained attention in Florida, where politicians have banned programs that consider race and national origin in the treatment of people. Educators say the political context adds to the difficulties of recruiting teachers.

The plan to convert the small county airport into private ownership still needs approval from the Federal Aviation Administration, which will depend in part on solidifying contracts with Latin American suppliers to prove its potential as a hub for perishable goods.

Meanwhile, two adult education centers in the county have expanded with support from the FutureMakers Coalition, a community organization that has led school recycling efforts in Southwest Florida. It also involves paying for the services of a counselor to help adults looking to develop new skills and change careers.

Spanish-speaking students filled the adult education center in LaBelle, the county seat of 5,000 people.

Many work or have children at home, which forced their instructor, Silvia Gullett, to get creative to meet their needs. She created a WhatsApp group so students could organize carpools or share childcare duties. If students don’t show up to class, Gullett texts them to figure out what the problem is. She doesn’t settle for easy excuses.

“At the beginning, I had students who didn’t want to continue. I try to tell people that the only one who can stop them is themselves,” said Gullett, who was born in Peru before starting her teaching career in Florida two decades ago.

At the nation’s other adult education center, in Clewiston, sparks are flying as dozens of students wearing thick gloves and respirator masks work to earn the industry certifications needed to enter the job market. One of them, Samantha Garza, 21, first studied child care at a Fort Myers community college but changed directions after watching YouTube videos about welders.

“I’m an artistic person, so I already have a steadier hand, and I like getting down and dirty doing physical things, so I felt like this would be a career for me,” she said. declared.

Even before the airport arrives, many local employers are still waiting to hire the students. As its current employees approach retirement age, U.S. Sugar, the Clewiston-based agricultural giant, has needs so urgent 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 skills trainer with the company.

Finding enough instructors to provide training has been a challenge. Swindle had to recruit a US Sugar employee to teach welding and convince a school bus mechanic to come out of retirement to run the diesel mechanics program.

Yet the program has been so successful that the county is using tuition revenue and donations to open another training center in LaBelle focused on HVAC and plumbing.

There has been controversy surrounding some efforts, including a “white privilege”-themed slide presented at a teacher training event run by FutureMakers. That sparked an outcry from conservative activists who accused the organizers of racism, and a Republican city commissioner in LaBelle suggested it violated the “Stop WOKE Act” signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican.

The political climate in Florida has made it difficult to attract K-12 teachers, according to Swindle. In a state where DeSantis has exploited culture war passions in his education policies, Swindle said many of his teachers don’t feel supported.

“The rhetoric around public education is horrible. This absolutely hurts 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 professionals to meet the influx of people the airport could bring.

“We don’t have a chemistry or physics teacher in high school. We’ve left job postings open for three years and we can’t even find anyone to apply,” Swindle said.

The county has conducted more marketing campaigns to recruit educators and pay paraprofessionals to obtain licenses so they can become teachers with the help of a $23 million Good Jobs Challenge grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The stakes are high for the longtime home of Swindle.

The superintendent knows where the alligators are, sunbathing along the acres of canals that irrigate the sugarcane fields. He knows which sabal palms produce the best swamp cabbages and teaches his sons how to cut hearts of palm with his knife, as their ancestors did to survive lean times.

Yet there is no way to know whether all of its retraining efforts will be successful. The airport still might not happen, especially if the county can’t prove it will have the workers ready to support it.

For now, officials are trying to meet current workforce needs while testing their ability to implement new training programs. Once airport construction 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 see this as an opportunity to move the fight against unemployment and poverty to a better place.”

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Nick Fouriezos covers the role of the university in rural America for Open Campus, a nonprofit newsroom focused on higher education. Sign up for her newsletter, Mile Markers.

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