Prairie State Wire

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lambasted Illinois’ COVID-19 policies in relation to education during a March 5 speech in California.

DeSantis underscored the distinction of his state's approach versus other states including Illinois.

“January 2021, Burbio did the survey, state of Florida 100% open in-person; California and Illinois, less than 20% on their survey, open and in-person for all students,” DeSantis said in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute in Simi Valley, California. “I am sorry. That is a disgrace for this state and Illinois and other states that did it, and the consequences of that are going to live for a long, long time.” 

In Florida, schools were required to reopen by Aug. 21, 2020. The Burbio study found Florida had one of the highest school opening rates in the nation, while Illinois had one of the worst. By June 2021, those numbers were much starker as Illinois was an outlier with many more schools closed than almost any other state.

The Massachusetts-based National Bureau of Economic Research found Florida did not suffer higher mortality rates due to reopening schools earlier than most other states. 

“Although sometimes criticized as having policies that were ‘too open,’ Florida proved to have average mortality while maintaining a high level of economic activity and 96% open schools,” a National Bureau of Economics Research (NBER) study noted. 

The mortality rate in Illinois was higher during the pandemic than Florida’s, and lockdown states on average suffered higher mortality rates.

“There is no clear pattern in which states had high and low mortality, although we note one major study from Rand Corporation researchers found that lockdowns increased all-cause mortality to a statistically significant extent,” the NBER study reads. “Whether or not political leaders can be considered responsible for mortality outcomes is therefore unclear, although advocates of a "focused protection" strategy have suggested that sheltering the high-risk could reduce overall mortality – an approach adopted by Florida.”

The difference was much starker in Chicago Public Schools, which is responsible for more than 340,000 students. 

“In Chicago Public Schools, the third-largest school district in the U.S., it was the same as students spent most of the 2020-2021 school year in remote or hybrid learning, despite the governor lifting the school closure mandate prior to the start of the school year,” Hannah Max, a policy analyst, wrote in Illinois Policy. "Even after returning to in-person learning, Chicago students remained masked longer than most other Illinois public students thanks to the Chicago Teachers Union’s safety agreement with CPS, which they got after walking out on students for five school days in January."

According to Max, CPS has lost nearly 25,000 students since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. "The two-year decline in enrollment reached 6.5% – higher than the 4.4% national average for mostly remote districts,” she wrote.