Ron DeSantis Backs Down in Mask Mandate Dispute With Florida Schools
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has backpedaled in the row over his order banning mask mandates in schools.
On July 30 the Republican lawmaker signed an executive order "ensuring parents' freedom to choose" whether their child wears a mask. However, two Florida districts—Alachua and Broward counties—have defied this rule and made masks mandatory in school unless the child can provide a doctor's note, as COVID-19 hospitalizations increase in the state.
Gov. DeSantis's office responded by saying the state's Board of Education could move to withhold salaries from the superintendent or school board members.
But the governor's office softened its stance on Friday, acknowledging that the state has no control over local employees' pay.
A spokesperson for DeSantis called on "activists, anti-science school board members" to dock their own salaries if the state follows through with financial sanctions against their district.
"Those officials should own their decision—and that means owning the consequences of their decisions rather than demanding students, teachers, and school staff to foot the bill for their potential grandstanding," Christina Pushaw, the governor's press secretary, wrote in an email to the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times.
Newsweek has contacted DeSantis's office for further comment.
On Friday, a court in Leon County will hear a case brought by parents from several Florida counties challenging the governor's order. The lawsuit accuses DeSantis of a power grab, saying his rule violates state constitutions and endangers schools, which have the power to operate, control and supervise classes within their districts. Other school districts and parents are also suing the governor.
Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran wrote to the Alachua and Broward school districts on Monday, threatening to impose financial penalties if they refused to amend their masking policies. Corcoran wrote that their doctor's note opt-out requirement—which reflects U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations—was "inconsistent" with state rules and threatened to dock officials' pay.
If the penalties are imposed, Alachua County Public Schools would lose $300,000 from its $537 million school-year budget for 2021-22, the Miami Herald reported. The newspaper calculated that Broward County Public Schools' $2.6 billion budget would be reduced by $700,000.
As millions of children return to school, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association revealed on Thursday that nearly 4.3 million U.S. COVID-19 cases have affected children—about 14 percent of all cases.
The Sunshine State is seeing some of the highest rates of COVID-19 infection in the U.S. as the Delta variant spreads. On Thursday, Florida recorded 20,656 new cases of the disease in 24 hours.
The state is also experiencing the highest rate of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. According to data from the CovKid project, which uses COVID-19 hospitalization numbers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as of August 7, Florida is reporting 8.1 children hospitalized with COVID-19 per 100,000 residents.
Florida also has the highest rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations among residents aged 18 and 19. As of August 7, Florida reported 20.6 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in that age group.
