On this Wednesday, Sept. 23, episode of Sundial:
Miami-Dade Schools To Reopen In October
Miami-Dade County has a scheduled date to have students back in the classroom.
Following a marathon School Board meeting lasting over the span of two days — including 18 hours of public comment, school board members agreed to resume in-person classes starting on Oct. 14, more than a week later than the date that was first proposed by Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
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“A combination of software problems as well as cyber attacks made the first few days of online remote learning in Miami-Dade County a complete disaster,” said WLRN’s education reporter Jessica Bakeman. “That process went so badly, I think they don’t want to take a chance of reopening for in-person classes and having it go badly. So they listened to the teachers and parents who said we’re not ready we need more time.”
Parents and caregivers have the option to send their children back into the classroom. Teachers will need to make some difficult decisions in the coming weeks.
We spoke with Bakeman about what in-person classes will look like in Miami-Dade County.
Note: Miami-Dade Public Schools is WLRN’s broadcast license holder but has no editorial control over our content.
Trump’s Plan To Win Florida In November
President Trump will be back in Florida this week, first for a campaign stop in Jacksonville Thursday and then down to Miami Friday.
He may meet with Barbara Lagoa, a former Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge who’s now on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Lagoa is reportedly on President Trump’s shortlist to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Supreme Court, the economy and law enforcement are all key issues for the Trump campaign’s strategy to win the Sunshine State.
“This is not a persuasion campaign anymore. This is about a turnout campaign,” said state Sen. Joe Gruters, who is also the chairman of the Florida GOP. “Expect to see a lot more visits [from the president] because Florida is the big prize, we’re a purple state.”
We spoke with Gruters about President Trump’s plans for winning the Sunshine State again in November.
Last week, we heard from former Florida U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson with the Biden campaign — you can hear that interview here.
Survey Finds Americans Lack Holocaust Knowledge
A new survey found that a majority of American young adults lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust.
Twenty-three percent of Millennials and Gen Z adults believe the Holocaust was a myth or had been exaggerated.
“I think the most surprising part about the [results of this survey] is that I wasn’t surprised,” said Alex Zand, the Hillel student board president at Florida Atlantic University. Hillel International is the largest Jewish campus organization in the world.
Florida was among the lowest-scoring states. That’s despite it being one of the first states in the country to add Holocaust education as part of the state’s curriculum.
Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law that will make Holocaust education uniform statewide. That legislation was sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Lauren Book.
“We wanted to make sure that we weren’t just learning the history of the Holocaust — dates, names of different camps — but also how something like that was able to occur in the world. Making sure that we talk about, if you see a wrongdoing, stand up. Don’t be a bystander,” said Book.
We spoke with Book and Zand about Holocaust education and the impact of social media on this kind of misinformation.
