TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida school districts that defied the state’s ban on mask mandates could lose out on a total of $200 million in state funding as a consequence of their action.
The 12 districts that could miss out on millions include those in Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Duval, Hillsborough, Indian River, Leon, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Volusia counties. The $200 million figure is based on the number of administrators in a county making more than $100,000 a year.
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“They didn’t defy the mask ban, they broke the law,” Republican state Rep. Randy Fine said. “They acted in an illegal way and they engaged in the second-largest state-sponsored act of child abuse in the history of Florida.”
The state could spread the money around the other 55 districts that followed Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order that banned mask mandates in schools during the coronavirus pandemic.
Fine said the districts being targeted, which account for about half of the public school enrollment in the state, must face the consequences of their actions.
To try and sweeten the pot and get enough votes to pass the plan, the House version would take the money and give it to the school districts that didn’t buck the state, Fine said.
“And we have to send the message that when you follow the law, you are rewarded. When you do not follow the law, you are not,” he added.
Leon County Superintendent Rocky Hanna told News4JAX his constituents wanted masks worn in schools despite the state saying no.
Hanna was asked if he would make the same decision again.
“Absolutely. Absolutely, I would,” he said. “And if we need to go to war with him, with representative Fine and this issue with salaries, we’ll just lawyer up and have at it.”
Democratic leader Evan Jenne thinks it would be foolish for any GOP members from the 12 counties to agree to move the money.
“How any legislator can turn around and tell his community that I am here for you, or she, turn around and say ‘I’m here for your kids,’ don’t tell me that when you’ve just yoked millions of dollars away from their education,” said Jenne, who represents Broward County.
The plan gets its first test Wednesday when the proposed budget goes before the full appropriations committee.