Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has threatened the nation’s eighth largest school district with a loss of $200 million in state funding if the district opts to start the school year with remote learning due to the risk of the coronavirus, the Washington Post reports.
In spite of Florida facing a statewide outbreak that typical has it in the top three states with new cases daily, DeSantis told Hillsborough County Public Schools that it would face the loss of state aid if it opted to hold the first month of school in any other way than fully in-person.
Hillsborough County Public Schools has more than 200,000 students, 15,000 teachers and 10,000 other personnel in 250 schools. The principal city in the district is Tampa.
“It was very clear. If we do not follow their emergency order, we will be financially hindered,” Hillsborough Superintendent Addison Davis said Thursday. “We would forfeit close to $200 million. We just can’t do that. That would bankrupt us. It would put us in a terrible situation financially.”
Facing the loss of funding, HCPS announced that it would hold the first week remotely, and then allow parents to decide if they wanted to have their children return to the classroom.
Ridiculously, DeSantis compared opening schools to the Navy SEAL operation undertaken during the Obama Administration to eliminate Osama bin Laden.
“Just as the SEALs surmounted obstacles to bring Osama bin Laden to justice, so, too, would the Martin County school system find a way to provide parents with a meaningful choice of in-person instruction or continued distance learning,” DeSantis said in a speech Wednesday.
DeSantis has used such extortion to further the promises of President Trump to have schools open to in-person classes by the Fall on other districts, including Palm Beach Country and Hendry County.
The Florida Education Association and Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, two large teacher’s unions in the state, have sued DeSantis after numerous educators have contracted coronavirus in while preparing to open schools.