In an escalating battle with Republican governors, President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered his Education secretary to explore possible legal action against states that have blocked school mask mandates and other public health measures meant to protect students against COVID-19.
In response, the Education Department raised the possibility of using its civil rights arm to fight policies in Florida, Texas, Iowa and other Republican-led states that have barred public schools from requiring masks in the classroom.
Biden directed Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to “assess all available tools” that can be used against states that fail to protect students amid surging coronavirus cases.
“Some state governments have adopted policies and laws that interfere with the ability of schools and districts to keep our children safe during in-person learning,” Biden said in an executive order, adding that some states “have gone so far as to try to block school officials” from adopting safety measures.
It amounts to the sharpest threat yet against states that so far have ignored admonishments from the White House during the surging pandemic. The move also injects the federal government into mounting culture wars that have turned schools into battlegrounds in a debate over masks.
In an announcement on its website, the Education Department said policies that ban mask mandates could amount to discrimination if they lead to unsafe conditions that prevent students from attending school. The agency can launch its own investigations into potential violations, and it also responds to civil rights complaints from parents and the public.
“The department has the authority to investigate any state educational agency whose policies or actions may infringe on the rights of every student to access public education equally,” Cardona said in a statement. He added that states banning mask mandates are “needlessly placing students, families and educators at risk.”
The agency’s Office for Civil Rights can issue a range of sanctions up to a total loss of federal education funding in cases of civil rights violations.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pressed ahead with a ban on school mask requirements, and the state’s education officials are now weighing whether to withhold salaries of some superintendents that have defied the order. Texas and at least six other states have instituted similar prohibitions.
The state policies run counter to guidance from the from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recommends universal mask wearing for students and teachers in the classroom. In its guidance, the CDC cited the spread of the highly contagious delta variant.
Biden indicated last week that he believes he does not personally have the authority to overturn the policies, but he pleaded with Republican governors to reconsider their prohibitions. If they won’t help, he urged them to “at least get out of the way.”
While most states allow school districts to determine their own mask policies, some have fallen on either side of the debate. Some including California, Louisiana and Virginia have moved to require masks in schools for most students this fall. In other states that have barred mandates, leaders say it should be up to families to decide.
Protesters who oppose mask mandates have taken to state and local school board meetings in recent weeks, in some cases derailing the meetings.
In letters to Florida and Texas last week, Cardona said their prohibitions may violate the American Rescue Plan, which provided $123 billion to the nation’s schools to help them return to the classroom. The policies prevent schools from developing safe reopening plans, a requirement of the legislation, he said.
Similar letters are also being sent to Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah, Cardona said on Wednesday.
“Let me be clear,” he wrote, “this department will continue to use every tool in our toolbox to protect the health and safety of students and educators and to maximize in-person learning as the new school year begin.”
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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“The department has the authority to investigate any state educational agency whose policies or actions may infringe on the rights of every student to access public education equally,” And just what rights are being violated? Are any of them being barred from attending school and receiving an education (such as it is any more)?, NO—the control freaks don’t want to let go of their power and they continue to cling to their misinformation that these “protective policies” actually work even though there is no evidence to support it.
Why is Mr Lawless Biden so hellbent on enforcing his idea of law on everyone else—mandating that they comply or else. He openly ignores our immigration laws and brazenly defies the Supreme Court. And he rules by executive order bypassing Congress.
“Biden indicated last week that he believes he does not personally have the authority to overturn the policies, but he pleaded with Republican governors to reconsider their prohibitions. If they won’t help, he urged them to “at least get out of the way.” If he doesn’t have the authority, he has no problem grabbing it. And, yes, he wants Republicans—and you and me—out of the way so he can run roughshod over this country and its citizens in his insane quest for power.
Impeach Biden
So let me get this straight. WHEN STATES flat out refuse to enforce federal immigration laws, Re all those Sanctuary states, THE SCOTUS AND DOJ ETC, said TRUMP DID NOT have a right to punish them with withholding federal funds.
BUT BIDEN CAN do so, against states REFUSING TO essentially make SLAVES of their citizens?!
Can anyone else see what’s wrong here!?
Of course the msm won’t tell you that these republican state legislatures passed LAWS that deny school administrators from mandating mask wearing. They DID NOT ban the wearing of masks in schools. If parents want to torture their children for NO REASON, by sending them to school in a mask, they are still free to do so.
Facts like that, NEVER matter to the left. Just their LYING AGENDA!
Biden directed Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to “assess all available tools” that can be used against states that fail to protect students amid surging coronavirus cases.
In response, the Education Department raised the possibility of using its civil rights arm to fight policies in Florida, Texas, Iowa and other Republican-led states that have barred public schools from requiring masks in the classroom.
The agency’s Office for Civil Rights can issue a range of sanctions up to a total loss of federal education funding in cases of civil rights violations.
Huh??
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. … The Act prohibited discrimination in public accommodations and federally funded programs. It also strengthened the enforcement of voting rights and the desegregation of schools.
Exactly. HOW IS IT ‘violating the civil rights act, to say “YOU CANNOT MANDATE MASKS” for folks?
IT doesn’t!
Hey Joe, there should be a “civil rights” probe of you, as you have taken away my “civil rights” as an American citizen. Hey, suburban housewives, who overwhelmingly voted for Biden, how do you like communism, how do you like higher prices, how are you going to like public housing in suburban areas, with all of the crime and drugs it will bring?
Exactly. WHERE WAS that ‘civil rights’ defenders, WHEN OUR RIGHTS Were literally spat all over, during the past 18 months!??!?
SILENT!
Do burqas qualify as covid masks per Joe Tali-Biden?
Civil rights probes! Huh! What should be probed is the way masking orders were mandated by unelected bureaucrats in the government in the first place, that’s where the rights of the people beagn to be abused in the beginning and so it continues. What galls them is the states who didn’t go along with the outrageous mandates fared better and that is a no-no to leftists.
premier and comrade bidenoff and his party of fools have stomped on urinated on and totally disregarded our constitution.
where is law enforcement? hell where are the republicans? we are being invaded by muslims and central americas unwanted.
if these people want freedom the fight for it in your own dam country.
the bidenoff disaster makes carter look almost good.
Most repulblicans in office, seem to either be OK with what’s going on, or TOO COWARDLY to speak out.. WE can no longer IMO, rely on them.
Cardona is a tool…. a Marxist/communist tool.
Standard MO for the Dem Party tyrants.
They will first ask us lowly peasants to just salute & obey their dictates, then they will insult & shame us & if those don’t work they just resort to brute force.
Now they have decided to force everyone from newborns on up to get covid vaccines that have not been long term studied even if we are at low risk or no risk of covid making us seriously ill.
And, just to show us how powerful they are, they are forcing 2 years old & up, vaccinated or covid recovered, to wear masks everywhere & for hours on end – but so far they graciously allow us to choose between single, double or triple masking.
Apparently they plan to keep us forcibly masked, isolated, silenced & confined at home indefinitely or until Dem Party has total control of voting.
Wont surprise me if we end up being tattooed to identify those who haven’t proven to be loyal Dems.
THAT “Tattooing” is what the VACCINE passports are…
Article 1, section 8, and the 10th amendment of the Constitution of the United States. Oh! that’s right, politicians only care, when it helps them!!!!! Sadly, the Constitution has become irrelevant!!!
Mask requirements are discriminatory!
So let me see. Threaten us with no money from the Fed’s. OK, We won’t allow the collection of federal taxes in our state should that occur. A little tit for tat.
Revive the Tea Party!! Impeach O’Biden now, you spineless Republicans!!
How often has it been said the COVID mask thing was about control, and this article brings that point out.
IT always has been!
In new news. THOSE PLEXIGLASS dividers, we see now being common place in stores, libraries, schools and the like for the ‘Virtue signaling that they care about our safety’, ARE ACTUALLY NOT doing anything to stop the spread of covid. IN FACT THEY ARE Spreading it faster, as they create ‘virus’ dead zones..
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/08/19/it-turns-out-all-those-plastic-covid-barriers-might-have-made-things-worse-n2594441