ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida has thousands of teacher vacancies across the state, and two bilingual college students are looking to help fill those spots.

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Waldemar Rivera and Wildia Marrero plan to receive teaching certificates from Ana G. Méndez University by November after they finish their 12-week residency.

Although they're still students, they look forward to leading their future classrooms in Florida, especially being bilingual. 

Here are five facts about current teacher vacancies in Florida:

1. According to the Florida Education Association, a statewide teachers union, there are more than 3,500 teaching vacancies this school year.
2. In January, the teachers union reported there were more than 2,000 job vacancies.
3. The FEA reports there were there were 4,000 vacancies last August.
4. A reason for these vacancies could be the low teacher pay. The National Education Association reports Florida is ranked 46th nationwide in teacher pay.
5. Last year, according to the NEA, the average starting salary for teachers was more than $39,000, but in Florida it was $37,000.​

To learn more about Rivera and Marrero’s story, watch above.