Biden orders Education Department to take action against governors who ban school mask mandates

President Joe Biden has said that his administration is prepared to take legal action against governors who block universal mask mandates.

“We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children,” Mr Biden said in a news conference on Wednesday. He has directed Miguel Cardona, his education secretary, to take “legal action, if appropriate” and “additional steps to protect our children”.

Florida Gov Ron DeSantis has said parents should be the ones to decide whether their children wear masks, and he threatened to sanction the Florida school districts that mandate mask-wearing by withholding school board members’ salaries.

School boards including Miami-Dade County, Hillsborough County, Broward County and Alachua County went against the state’s orders and require students to wear masks unless they have a medical exemption.

Mr Biden said he would top up any school districts salaries cut by using the American Rescue Plan. “If a governor wants to cut the pay of a hard-working education leader who requires masks in the classroom, the money from the American Rescue Plan can be used to pay that person’s salary,” said Mr Biden. “One-hundred per cent.”

The president highlighted that politicising coronavirus safety measures was a dangerous game. “Some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures – that is, children wearing masks in school – into political disputes for their own political gain,” Mr Biden said. “Some are even trying to take power away from local educators. They’re setting a dangerous tone.”

Florida is currently battling an increase in Covid-19 infections. In August, the state accounted for around one in five new US infections, and last week Florida had 150,000 cases of the disease. The state has a population of 22 million, similar to Australia’s 26 million, but the latter has taken a much stricter approach and has had 41,000 cases since the start of the pandemic.

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