Florida's DeSantis concedes he can't actually cut the salaries of school officials who issue mask requirements

The White House on Wednesday was toying with ways to cover the salaries of Florida school officials targeted by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for requiring students, teachers, and school staff to wear masks to slow the spread of COVID-19's Delta variant. But on Thursday, DeSantis acknowledged he can't actually follow through with his administration's threat to strip those officials of their paychecks. Christina Pushaw, a DeSantis spokeswoman, suggested the school officials cut their own salaries for defying DeSantis' mask mandate ban.

"The issue," Pushaw told the Tampa Bay Times, is that "superintendents and school board members are not state employees. Therefore, the only way the state could tailor the financial penalty would be to withhold an amount of funding equal to their salaries."

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Alachua County Public Schools is at risk of losing $300,000 of its $537 million 2021-22 budget, while Broward County Public Schools could lose $700,000 of its $2.6 billion annual budget, the Times notes.

DeSantis has argued that it is the sole responsibility of parents to decide if their kids wear masks at school, and he has banned both mask and vaccine requirements in the state. On Thursday, President Biden called the local leaders and school officials who buck such bans "heroes" and thanked them for standing up to their governors.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.