President Joe Biden has commended a pair of school superintendents from Florida and Arizona for enacting mask mandates in defiance of statewide bans, according to the White House.
In separate calls on Aug. 13, the president spoke to Chad Gestson, superintendent of the Phoenix Union High School District, and Vickie Cartwright, interim superintendent of the Broward County Public Schools. Geston and Cartwright have mandated masks for students in their districts despite mask mandate bans by Republican leaders in Arizona and Florida.
“In both conversations, the president commended their leadership and courage to do the right thing for the health and well-being of their students, teachers, and schools,” a White House official said.
“Dr. Gestson and Dr. Cartwright are among the leaders who have stepped up at the local level to ensure students and schools are safe where governors have enacted bad public health measures, including banning masks that help stop the spread of COVID-19 in schools.”
In Florida, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order prohibiting schools from imposing mask mandates on students. School district leaders in three counties have openly defied the order, prompting the DeSantis administration to threaten to withhold funds from those districts in the amount of the salaries of the officials involved. The Biden administration countered by offering to repay the docked funds by using the $7 billion allocated to Florida schools in the federal pandemic relief package.
Arizona has reported 93 COVID-19 deaths over the past seven days. Florida has reported 242 deaths.
The seven-day average of the number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Florida is at the highest level seen since the beginning of the pandemic. In Arizona, the same average has been rising steadily since early July.
