A few states have done similar things (IIRC Oklahoma was another, for instance). Insane politics (plus the general, unavoidable unpleasantness of the situation)

A few states have done similar things (IIRC Oklahoma was another, for instance). Insane politics (plus the general, unavoidable unpleasantness of the situation) around Covid, plus a recent return of political demonization of teachers (see: this exact law)—which efforts, incidentally, absolutely do affect the day-to-day work environment for teachers—drove lots of teachers out of the profession, and now there's a second wave thanks to salaries not coming even close to keeping up with inflation, while wages have gone up quite a bit in the rest of the economy. Most of the country's having some amount of trouble finding teachers, and some places are having a lot of trouble, so they've taken some desperate measures to at least find warm bodies to watch the kids. I'd guess the reasoning with singling out military folks is that they've been kinda-sorta vetted (ha, ha) already, and they're likely to be fairly disciplined and able to finish stuff (like getting their teaching cert[s]).