South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Biden administration joins state’s school-mask fight
Facing loss in funding, Broward offered aid
The Biden administration has joined the fight against Florida’s ban on face mask mandates in school, saying it was “deeply concerned” Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state leaders had taken a stand “against sciencebased strategies” and offering support and financial help to the two school districts fighting state rules.
President Joe Biden even called Broward’s superintendent Friday night, the Miami Herald reported, to offer his support for district rules requiring students to wear masks. On the call, he said his administration “stands ready to support their school districts and communities to get back to safe, full-time, in-person learning,” the Herald reported.
The Broward County school district is one of only two — along with Alachua County (where Gainesville is located) — of Florida’s 67 school districts that have adopted mask mandates despite a state order that bans them. Some board members in some other districts, including Orange County (where Orlando is located), discussed such mandates but did not adopt them in part because state rules forbid them. They worried, however, that DeSantis had tied their hands just as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations were surging.
As a result of their stance, both Alachua and Broward face a loss of state funding, and the State Board of Education is slated to discuss their fate in an “emergency meeting” Tuesday.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona wrote DeSantis and Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on Friday to say the U.S. Department of Education was worried Florida had prioritized threatening school districts over
“protecting students and educators.”
Cardona noted that “universal masking polices” are what t he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended for all K-12 schools and said Florida’s school districts should be supported when making decisions that would enhance campus safety.
“Florida’s recent actions to block school districts from voluntarily adopting science-based strategies for preventing the spread of COVID-19 that are aligned with the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts students and staff at risk,” he wrote.
“The Department stands with these dedicated educators who are working to safely reopen schools and maintain safe in-person instruction,” he added.
Cardona’s letter and Biden’s phone call came at the end of a week in which DeSantis’s press secretary said districts that did not comply with state rules could lose money equivalent to that of the superintendent and school board members’ salaries, and Corcoran wrote letters that threatened the loss of those funds and possibly much more.
If the state reduces funding for those districts, Cardona said district leaders could use federal relief money, referred to as ESSER dollars, to make up the difference.
“In other words, any threat by Florida to withhold salaries from superintendents and school board members who are working to protect students and educators (or to levy other financial penalties) can be addressed using ESSER funds at the sole and complete discretion of Florida school districts,” he wrote.
DeSantis signed an executive order July 30 giving parents, not local school boards, the right to decide if their children wear masks on campus. A week later the Florida Department of Health issued a state rule saying children could wear face masks at school as a “mitigation measure” but parents must be able to opt them out of any mandate.
In his letters to Alachua and Broward school leaders, Corcoran made it clear parental rights was the priority.
“There is no room for error or leniency when it comes to ensuring compliance with policies that allow parents and guardians to make health and educational choices for their children,” he wrote.
Spokespersons for DeSantis and Corcoran did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday
Most Florida school districts planned for mask-optional policies for the 2021-22 school year but some began to rethink that in July, as COVID-19 cases spiked again.
DeSantis’ order and the health department rule, however, made some school leaders decide the best the could do was encourage everyone to wear face masks and require parents to send in notes if they wanted their children to opt out.
The governor’s order has been contentious, cheered by parents opposed to face mask mandates in schools but criticized by those who view masks as a simple and effective way to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Both the American Academy of Pediatrics and the CDC recommended everyone in K-12 schools wear face masks because many students are unvaccinated and the delta variant is so contagious. They said “universal” masking is the best way to stop the virus from spreading on campuses.
lpostal@orlandosentinel. com