Education Department to Florida: Stop Withholding School Funds Over Masks

The U.S. Department of Education has had it with Florida’s culture war over masks in schools. The federal agency told its state-level counterpart Thursday to stop withholding funds from school districts that require students and teachers to cover their faces to slow the spread of the coronavirus. The Education Department alleged in a cease-and-desist complaint filed Thursday that the state’s department of education “has unlawfully—and explicitly—reduced the amount of state aid provided to Florida school districts based on their receipt of federal funds. It has done so as part of a broader effort to deter those districts from implementing practices recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” A spokesman for Florida’s Education Department said the federal government is overreaching and is actually the one “acting unlawfully.”