State withholds school board salaries over masks
Despite a court ruling saying school districts can require students to wear masks, the state is still withholding money to penalize Broward County schools.
A news release Monday from the Florida Department of Education doesn’t address the ruling from Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper, who found that the state’s ban on mask mandates was unconstitutional.
Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran said the state will withhold money equivalent to the salaries of eight of the nine Broward School Board members who voted for a mask mandate. He also is withholding the salaries of four of five board members in Alachua County who passed a similar measure.
Corcoran said the districts can’t use money designed for students or teacher pay to offset the penalty.
“We’re going to fight to protect parents’ rights to make health care decisions for their children,” Corcoran said. “They know what is best for their children. What’s unacceptable is the politicians who have raised their right hands and pledged, under oath, to uphold the Constitution but are not doing so. Simply said, elected officials cannot pick and choose what laws they want to follow.”
State officials announced Friday that they would appeal the Leon County court ruling. The judge had said he would issue his order this week, but that hasn’t happened yet, possibly providing a window for the state to take this action, Interim Broward Schools Superintendent Vickie Cartwright said.
The issue relates to whether the school districts are complying with a July 30 executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis and an Aug. 7 state rule from the Department of Health saying that parents must be able to opt their children out of mask mandates. State officials are also citing the Parent Bill of Rights, a law passed by the Legislature this year that gives parents more say on matters related to their children’s health.
Broward and Alachua were the first two districts to defy state
orders. Since then eight others have joined them, including Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, but the state hasn’t taken final action on them yet.
“We are looking to cooperate with the Department of Education and the State Board of Education,” Broward Schools Superintendent Vickie Cartwright told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “We’re not looking to make this a political matter. We believe we are in compliance with the law.”
The ruling surprised and angered some Broward School Board members.
“This feels illegal to me,” School Board member Sarah Leonardi said.”
Board Chairwoman Rosalind Osgood said she’s “very disappointed” that Corcoran and the Department of Education are “not willing to work with school districts” while the legal issues are resolved.
“Any defunding of public education is not appropriate,” Osgood said. “Our staff and students are experiencing additional trauma caused by the pandemic. Many staff and students have lost family members, friends and coworkers. Districts are trying to provide quality face-to-face learning.”
The release said the commissioner and state Board of Education “retain the right and duty to impose additional sanctions and take additional enforcement action to bring each school district into compliance with state law and rule.”