Biden administration looking for ways to pay Florida educators if Governor DeSantis withholds their salaries over mask mandates

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Wed, 2021-08-11 09:23 — mike kraft

Biden administration looking for ways to pay Florida educators if DeSantis withholds their salaries over mask mandates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that the state might withhold school officials’ pay if they defy his ban and impose mask mandates. If that happens, the White House says it may find a way to pay them itself. Annie Linskey Washington Post

The Biden administration is examining whether it can direct unused stimulus funds to support educators in Florida who may defy the governor’s order against mask mandates in schools.

The announcement Tuesday was a sharp response to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has threatened to withhold the salaries of superintendents and school board members who defy his executive order banning classroom mask mandates.

Such a move, if it occurred, would be a more aggressive strategy by the White House as coronavirus infections fueled by the delta variant spike across the country, many Americans continue to refuse vaccines, and some high-profile Republicans attack mask requirements and vaccine mandates.

The White House is also considering using the federal government’s spending power to push entities such as long-term-care facilities to require that their employees get vaccinated.

On Tuesday, President Biden took aim particularly at GOP leaders like DeSantis who, he said, deride mask mandates as government overreach but have no problem imposing their own will on local school districts. “I find that totally counterintuitive and frankly disingenuous,” Biden said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration is “continuing to look for ways” for “the U.S. government to support districts and schools as they try to follow the science.”

The conflict has escalated as a number of school officials in Florida are moving forward with requiring masks in defiance of DeSantis’s edict. At least four school districts in the state — including Broward County Public Schools, the second-largest in Florida — are pushing back against the governor’s ban. ...

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