February 20, 2022

Ron DeSantis Wants to Seize Millions from Pro-Masking Schools

The Florida governor is backing a bill to strip $200 million from 12 Democratic-led counties.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a December 2021 press conference in support of his party's "Stop W.O.K.E. Act."Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/TNS/Zuma

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Ron DeSantis is taking his war on masks to a new—and possibly unconstitutional—level.

Last year, Florida’s Republican governor issued an executive order banning mask mandates in schools. Now, he’s backing a proposal to withhold $200 million in education funds from 12 counties that kept requiring masks, and divert their money to 55 school districts that complied.

The proposal, part of a Florida House of Representatives budget bill sponsored by casino-mogul-turned GOP state legislator Randy Fine, is pegged to the salaries of staff making over $100,000 in the targeted districts, although it wouldn’t directly slash those administrators’ salaries. The bill’s highest-profile opponent? Ron DeSantis. Less than two weeks ago, DeSantis rejected the proposal, objecting that it would “penalize a teacher or student because of the action” of their school board. But the governor just reversed course, tweeting his thanks to Fine for “heeding my call to protect students and teachers” from penalties aimed at “politicians and bureaucrats who defied Florida law by force masking kids.” While the state Senate hasn’t yet worked the salary cuts into its proposed budget, DeSantis’ approval helps pave the way for the suggestion to become law. (The Florida Department of Education has already cut some pro-mask districts’ funding in the amount of their school boards’ pay.)

If Fine’s plan comes to fruition, it’s likely to face substantial legal challenges. As The Guardian points out, the provision is misguided—even on its own terms—in punishing administrators who enforced mask mandates, not just the school board members who set them. And while Fine has insisted that “these school districts broke the law,” it’s not clear that they did: The school districts all dropped their mandates once the issue was settled in court. In fact, the budget provision itself might violate Florida’s state constitution, which prohibits the state legislature from “passing a general law of local application to impose fines.”

No matter how it pans out, a plan to cut school budgets in a state already firmly in the bottom 10 for per-pupil educational spending is not a good look.

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That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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