The Florida state Board of Education voted Friday to issue school vouchers allowing parents to send their children to private school if the local school board decides to mandate masks during in-person classes, the Associated Press reports.
The ruling would allow parents to get taxpayer monies from the school district to pay the tuition at any private school, including religious schools, if the school district requires their children to wear a mask. The move puts Republican Governor Ron DeSantis in the way of local elected officials who attempt to address concerns of public health professionals.
“If a parent wants their child to wear a mask at school, they should have that right. If a parent doesn’t want their child to wear a mask at school, they should have that right,” said board member Ben Gibson.
To enable the requirement for local taxpayers to pay the tuition, the Board modified current bullying criteria to include people who feel pressure to wear a mask.
DeSantis instructed his state-level political appointees to find ways to extort local school districts to bow to DeSantis’s anti-public health policies. By forcing the school districts to pay tuition, DeSantis is draining the school districts of funding and enriching political allies.