The largest teacher's union in Florida is suing the state after Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran signed an executive order requiring schools to reopen for in-person learning in just a few weeks. The Florida Education Association claims the state lacks an effective plan to combat coronavirus in schools.
"The gist of this lawsuit is that we want to make sure that our schools, when they reopen, reopen in the safest, most responsible way possible. We want to make sure we're looking out for the health of our students and for the people that work in our schools," said Andrew Spar, vice president of the union.
The state has reported more than 23,000 kids have tested positive for COVID-19. Spar said that number will surely rise if students, teachers, and faculty begin to gather again on school grounds.
"We don't know how people working in our schools, during the summer, have been diagnosed with COVID because they're not tracking them for that information."
Spar said a lawsuit against the state was the only option after attempts to negotiate with education officials failed.
"The task force they put together, out of 24 people, had three educators on it," he said.
The teachers union and community members drafted a list of recommendations for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but Spar believes it was likely ignored for political reasons.
"The governor has said early on, 'This is about economics. We want to make sure that our economy is growing,'" Spar stated.
An immediate fix in place of litigation would be the removal of the executive order and the implementation of virtual learning for the start of the school year, according to the union vice president.
"Let's put measures in place," he said. "Let the local school boards decide. There may be some places in the state where they can reopen in the brick and mortar sense, but let's be real that in a lot of parts of our state, where we've been really high in the number of cases, it's just not wise."
While options like remote learning can pose issues for many communities that lack access to internet service, Spar said this speaks to a larger issue our government should be addressing.
"Remote learning is clearly going to be an issue, it always has been, it's not ideal but under the conditions we have right now, it's probably the best way to go," he said.
As the situation with Russia has grown more precarious, the White House urged Americans remaining in Ukraine to leave immediately. The Biden administration that it sees continuing signs of escalation but did not have specific information detailing a timetable for a potential invasion. Kristine Berzina, senior fellow and head of the geopolitics team at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, joined Cheddar News to provide her analysis. "There's talk of an impending phone call between President Putin, President Biden," Berzina said. "That is certainly a good sign to indicate that there would be significant cost."
Terrell Starr, host of 'Black Diplomats' podcast and senior nonresident fellow at the Eurasia Center for Atlantic Council, joins Cheddar News from Kyiv, Ukraine to discuss the mounting tension there.
The White House laid out plans for a $5 billion investment into a national network of charging stations to ease EV driving anxiety. Bruce Brimacombe, CEO of EV infrastructure GOe3 joined Cheddar News to discuss how much needs to be done for drivers to get over the fear of running out of energy. "People need to be able to do what they're doing now," he said. "But that is the way that if you're going to buy an electric car, you got to feel like you're not changing your world." Brimacombe noted that building out the infrastructure between cities was GOe3's own focus.
U.S. automakers are saying that the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge, a crucial border crossing between the U.S. and Canada, is affecting their production lines. Michelle Krebs of Cox Automotive warns that the disruption "couldn't come at a worst time," amid chip and labor shortages in Detroit.
AND DETROIT-BASED AUTO MAKERS SAY THEY ARE SHUTTING DOWN PLANTS OR SCALING BACK PRODUCTION BECAUSE OF PARTS SHORTAGES.
Plans to add affordable housing to a development in Yellow Springs, Ohio, were squashed after comedian Dave Chappelle and other community members spoke out against the project. Chappelle threatened to pull the plug on his local comedy club and restaurant projects if the development had been approved.
David Tafuri, Former Obama Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor & Former State Department Official, joined Cheddar News to break down the latest geopolitical stories from Beijing, amid China's human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and yet another Russian doping scandal.
Dr. Jennifer Haythe of Columbia University's Irving Medical Center, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the latest with the pandemic, as the debate over child safety rages amid low vaccination rates and states easing school mask mandates.
David Nelson, Chief Strategist at Belpointe, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says that Wednesday's market movement shows a rotation back into the industries that were hit hard in January, but says his eyes are firmly fixed on the January CPI data set to be released Thursday.
Russia is preparing alongside Belarus for reportedly one of the largest joint military exercises ever held. Some analysts are concerned this could be a disguise for a real attack, while the Kremlin contends that the exercise is meant to confront potential "unprecedented security threats." Christian Whiton, a former State Department senior advisor, joined Cheddar News to break down the still tense situation. "While it could of course be a prelude to invasion, it seems like the Biden administration is signaling that if you look at Europeans, the Germans and Macron … who just met with Putin, they seem to be thinking that maybe this is a show of force by Russia intended at political intimidation, not actual invasion," said Whiton.
