TAMPA, Fla. — It's being called a massive substitute teacher shortage in Florida and some education officials are even arguing it's a nationwide crisis.

The problem centers on low wages and a small pool of substitute teachers.

At schools across Florida, the strain of open teacher positions shifts reliance to the subs that are usually called in to fill the open spots.

That leaves fewer subs for sick calls and other teacher off days.

In Hillsborough County, Kelly Education is under contract with the district to have a pool of substitute teachers to fill classrooms. During the summer, it scrambled to fill around 600 open substitute positions.

But even with contracted companies helping, many districts are still struggling to find subs said Andrew Spar, President of the Florida Education Association.

"It's not uncommon for a district to have a company that helps fill those substitute positions,” Spar said. “But again, when you have so many vacancies of teachers in the state, right now we have we think the number is somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,000 to 7,000 teacher vacancies in the state at this point in time, and you need substitutes to cover them."

The FEA said Florida was around 7,000 teachers short to start this school year, which means the problem hasn't gotten any better.

One of the only solutions for many districts has been raising taxes to support higher teacher pay.

But that has been an increasingly tough thing to sell for voters that are right now fighting inflation and slower wage increases at their own jobs.