Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said closing down schools in the spring as the COVID-19 pandemic began was one of the nation's "biggest public health mistakes," Fox News reported on Sunday (October 4).
“In March we may not have had all the information, but in hindsight, knowing what we know now, the closure of schools was one of the biggest public health mistakes in modern American history,” DeSantis said on the Drew Steele radio show. “And I think even Europe has said we shouldn't have closed up.”
DeSantis has been pushing for Florida schools to reopen for in-person instruction. The governor describe people who are for school closures “flat earthers of our day.”
“So, now we're at the point where the people who advocate school closures are really the flat earthers of our day,” DeSantis said. “They're not doing it based on data. They're not doing it based on evidence. They're doing it based on either politics or emotion. And so, the harm of school closures, I think, is really considerable.”
Miami-Dade County saw their first wave of students return to classrooms on Monday (October 5), NBC Miami reported. Despite concerns from teachers and parents over supplies and the teacher-to student ratio, district officials argued schools were prepared to reopen.
"Monday's start date was decided by the school district after a letter was sent by Florida's Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran the week prior. In the letter, Corcoran said Miami-Dade and Broward County schools would have to reopen Oct. 5 or risk losing funding," the website said.
Photo: Getty Images