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Florida teachers worried about going back to class during the coronavirus pandemic won a legal battle Monday with Governor Ron DeSantis, who wants to reopen schools by the end of the month.
Declaring that the state “essentially ignored the school safety requirement” by insisting that teachers resume teaching in person, Leon County Judge Charles Dodson spoke out in favor of the action. Justice of the Florida Education Association.
“Districts have no meaningful alternative,” Dodson said in his ruling. “If a school district chooses safety – that is, delaying the start of schools until it individually determines that it is safe to do so for its county – it risks losing funding for the school district. ‘State, although all students receive education. “
The Department of Education order, which was issued on July 6, overrode the right of local school boards to operate their own schools, Dodson ruled.
Dodson noted that after Hillsborough County, on the advice of local health experts, voted earlier this month to postpone the four-week reopening, it was threatened with losing $ 23 million in monthly public support from Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.
“They didn’t really have a choice,” writes Dodson. “The defendants arbitrarily prioritized the reopening of schools statewide in August over safety and expert health advice; and all school districts have complied to avoid a drastic loss of state funding. “
There was no immediate response from the state, but the Tampa Bay Times reported it was likely to appeal Dodson’s decision.
DeSantis pushed to reopen classrooms at the behest of President Donald Trump and as Florida was on the verge of being hit by a wave of new coronavirus cases and deaths.
Currently, Florida is behind California and Texas with more than 602,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and is in fifth place behind New York, New Jersey, California and Texas with 10,461 deaths, according to the latest figures from NBC News.
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