Jessica Bakeman
Jessica Bakeman reports on K-12 and higher education for WLRN, south Florida's NPR affiliate. While new to Miami and public radio, Jessica is a seasoned journalist who has covered education policymaking and politics in three state capitals: Jackson, Miss.; Albany, N.Y.; and, most recently, Tallahassee.
Jessica first moved to the Sunshine State in 2015 to help launch POLITICO Florida as part of the company’s national expansion. She is the immediate past president of the Capitol Press Club of Florida, a nonprofit organization that raises money for college scholarships benefiting journalism students.
Jessica was an original member of POLITICO New York’s Albany bureau. Also in the Empire State, Jessica covered politics for The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. As part of Gannett’s three-person Albany bureau, she won the New York Publishers Association award for distinguished state government coverage in 2013 and 2014. Jessica twice chaired a planning committee for the Albany press corps’ annual political satire show, the oldest of its kind in the country.
She started her career at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. There she won the Louisiana/Mississippi Associated Press Managing Editors’ 2013 first place award for continuing coverage of former Gov. Haley Barbour’s decision to pardon more than 200 felons as he left office.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and English literature from SUNY Plattsburgh, a public liberal arts college in northeastern New York. She (proudly) hails from Rochester, N.Y.
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The study was intended to monitor students’ language development, but researchers realized they could use the data to reflect how density of individuals in a classroom affected infection rates. -
It's not a final decision on whether facial coverings can be required in school. Legal challenges are continuing in state and federal proceedings.
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Parents Of Kids With Disabilities, Severe Medical Conditions Push For Strict Mask Mandates In SchoolSouth Florida students who are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 may not be able to attend school at all if their classmates aren't wearing masks, their parents argue.
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Why Engineering Degrees Still Take Four Years, And Other Lessons For A Florida Lawmaker On A CollegeState Sen. Shevrin Jones spent the summer touring public universities around the state.
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The largest school district in Florida will mandate masks for the school year that starts Monday, joining two others in defying Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
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Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran has recommended both districts be punished, which could include withholding funds or even removal of leaders from office.
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Dr. Aileen Marty says Miami-Dade is having its worst surge since the pandemic began: “I will not kowtow to dictates that damage the health and welfare of our society, no matter what kind of pressure is put on us."
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Broward County is one of a growing number of school districts that are pushing back against Gov. Ron DeSantis' rules prohibiting mask mandates in schools.
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As legal battles heat up, the Department of Education will consider expanding the "hope scholarship" to provide access to vouchers for families against mask mandates.
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Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order barring local school districts from mandating that students wear masks. A top Miami pediatrician says kids without masks will "infect each other."
