WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Friday admonished Republican governors of Texas and Florida for blocking local school districts from requiring masks or taking other measures to protect students from the coronavirus in the upcoming school year.
The education minister, Miguel Cardona, sent a few letters to the governors and their education commissioners, saying he was concerned about the recent implementation actions of both governors.
Those orders, he wrote, banned districts from “voluntarily adopting science-based strategies to prevent the spread of Covid-19 aligned with the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” such as universal masking. The letters were made public late Friday.
The debate over whether local school districts should be able to demand masks has become highly partisan. Republicans have used masking rules as a parental rights violation, while Democrats have said they are a public health issue.
Last week, President Biden also sharply criticized Republican governors such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who had banned mask mandates, saying they “pass laws and sign orders that prohibit people from doing the right thing.”
“If you don’t want to help, at least get out of the way,” Mr Biden said.
In a letter released Friday, Dr. Cardona Governor DeSantis for threatening this week to withhold the salaries of district superintendents or school board members who defied his order.
The Secretary of Education noted that the US Rescue Plan Act passed by Congress has allocated more than $7 billion to the state for security measures. None of the money has been made available to local districts, Dr. Cardona, and it could be used to pay school officials’ salaries.
In fact, it appears Florida has prioritized threatening to withhold state funds from school districts working to safely reopen schools, rather than protecting students and educators and giving school districts the federal pandemic recovery funds they are entitled to. “Dr. Cardona wrote.
In his letter to Texas officials, Dr. Cardona issued Governor Abbott’s executive order to block masking rules in schools, as well as other government guidelines that make contract tracing optional.
dr. Cardona said Governor Abbott’s order “may infringe a school district’s authority to enact policies to protect students and teachers in developing their safe return to personal instruction plans required by federal law.”
The offices of Governor DeSantis and Governor Abbott did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
He suggested that the state’s actions could jeopardize federal aid funding. The policy, he wrote, appeared to “limit the development of local health and safety policies and is at odds with the school district’s planning process,” which is required under the Department of Education’s rules for receiving the emergency funding.
dr. Cardona said his department’s rules emphasize that districts have discretion over the use of their funding, and that contact tracing, indoor masking policies and other CDC recommendations are allowed and encouraged.
dr. Cardona added that the Biden administration would “continue to closely monitor and monitor” whether both states met the requirements of federal funding laws.
dr. Cardona also expressed support for districts in both states that have defied governors’ orders.
“The department stands behind these dedicated educators working to safely reopen schools and maintain safe personal instructions,” he wrote.