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The education commissioner said schools are breaking laws by requiring masks.
Days after the Biden administration reimbursed two Florida school districts whose board members lost their salaries for mandating masks for students, the state’s top education official is trying to strip the districts of money.
In a series of memoranda, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on Monday recommended that the Florida Board of Education, which meets on Thursday, withhold “state funds in the amount of equal to any federal grant given “to districts that defy Governor Ron DeSantis’s ban. on the requirements for school masks.
Corcoran said he found a probable cause why 11 school districts, including Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, violated state laws by implementing a mask warrant.
He also recommended that Council withhold salaries from Council members in each district, a punishment already imposed in late August on officials in Alachua and Broward counties.
In response to this crackdown, the US Department of Education awarded Alachua and Broward Districts hundreds of thousands of dollars to make up for lost paychecks. The money was issued through the Project SAFE grant program, which was created last month to reimburse school districts that are losing state money for implementing coronavirus mitigation strategies. .
The Florida Department of Education has not announced that it has started withholding salaries from school board members in other districts requiring masks.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in August that districts punished by Florida for requiring masks for students would be eligible for a grant. “I want you to know that the US Department of Education is on your side,” he wrote in a letter to the superintendents.
The 11 districts that Corcoran says violated the law will be under a microscope on Thursday, when the Education Council meets to decide whether to implement the commissioner’s recommendations and punish them.
District officials in Alachua and Broward counties questioned the legality of the federal funding freeze on Tuesday.
“We are always concerned when funds are withheld for public education, but we are particularly concerned about state interference with federal funding. This will almost certainly have to be resolved in court,” Dr. Carlee Simon, Superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said in a statement to ABC News.
Dr Rosalind Osgood, chairwoman of the Broward County School Board, called Corcoran’s recommendations to the board of education “extremely unpleasant” and said her district was complying with the law “and saving lives”.
“Our students and staff need academic support, mental health support and job security. The way the governor and the education commissioner handled this issue has caused trauma. further, unemployment and a major disruption of school board operations, “Osgood said in a statement. at ABC News.
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