Education Week - August 25, 2021 - 12

Can Governors Really Take Money
From Schools Over Masks?
State leaders are
using the threat
of funding cuts
as a weapon in
the mask debate
By Mark Lieberman
Will school board members and
administrators have to pay up if they
ignore states' masking policies?
It's one of the many questions that
have emerged from this month's
raucous debates over ways districts
should mitigate the spread of the
Delta variant of COVID-19. The debate
involves fiscal punishment in
some places for districts that don't require
masks, and for others in places
where they do.
Washington state's superintendent
of education, Chris Reykdal,
said schools that fail to comply with
the state's requirement for universal
masking in schools could see an immediate
halt to their state and federal
funds.
Kelly Townsend, a Republican state
senator in Arizona, said on Twitter
that she would not vote to fund " any
agency " that violates the state's ban
on mask mandates-though she later
clarified her stance on schools in particular:
" I don't mean to completely
defund. But financial sanctions must
happen at this point. "
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last
week threatened to withhold salaries
from school board members and superintendents
in districts that require
students and staff to wear masks.
His office has since backtracked
slightly, urging school board members
and superintendents to forgo
their own salaries if the state retracts
funding from their district as punishment
for requiring masks. At least
one district, Leon County, loosened
its mask mandate in response to this
order.
U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel
Cardona wrote Aug. 13 to superintendents
in Florida and Texas that the
federal government supports mask
mandates and will approve the use
of American Rescue Plan funds to fill
gaps left by state penalties for requiring
masks.
Experts say it's fairly unlikely that
these money moves will come to fruition-though
in some cases, it's not
out of the question.
" It's tricky for a state leader to issue
a threat like this and not follow up if
they want similar threats to induce
compliance next time around, " said
Julia Martin, legislative director for
Brustein & Manasevit, a law firm that
works with school districts. " It's really
a political question rather than a
fiscal allowability question. "
12 | EDUCATION WEEK | August 25, 2021 | www.edweek.org
"
It's tricky for a
state leader to
issue a threat
like this
and not follow
up if they want
similar threats
to induce
compliance next
time around.
JULIA MARTIN
Legislative director for
Brustein & Manasevit
District leaders and school board
members are wrestling with thorny
questions about money even as they
juggle the complexities of starting
a new year of in-person school with
high rates of viral spread.
The 29,000-student Alachua
County, Fla., is defying the governor's
order and requiring masks in
schools at least until the next board
meeting on Aug. 17.
Even so, on the third day of school,
more than 450 students were in
quarantine due to a positive COVID
test or an exposure to someone who
tested positive, Tina Certain, vice
chair of the district's board, said in
an interview. She recently attended
funerals for a 15-year-old student and
a school custodian who died from
COVID.
Certain said she's prepared to forgo
her salary if necessary to uphold the
mask mandate. She maintains that
her district has statutory authority
to require masks, and she thinks it's
critical to do so for the health and
safety of the community. In addition
to prohibiting mask mandates,
the state also declined to approve
the district's request to offer virtual
instruction this year.
None of the board's five members
depends on the school district salary
for income, Certain said. But the
threat looms large in general. " When
you start to impact someone's paycheck,
that could be devastating, "
Certain said.
Florida also recently opened its
private voucher program, designed
mainly for students who have been
bullied at their local public school,
to families that felt inhibited by their
local district's mask policy.
If students flocked to that program,
districts could lose out on valuable
state funds. But in Alachua, Certain
said, only a handful of students have
taken advantage of that opportunity-in
part because most private
schools in the area are also requiring
masks, she said.
The governor's current threat is
to remove the equivalent of board
members' combined salaries-
roughly $300,000-from the district's
general fund.
That wouldn't make much of a
dent in the district's $573 million
budget, but it's not inconsequential.
" I'm not sneezing at it because every
dollar is precious when it comes to
education, " Certain said.
Broward County schools, meanwhile,
could see a comparable cut of
$700,000, out of its budget well of
more than $2 billion, for continuing
to enforce a mask mandate.
Sorting out what's possible from
what's likely
There are big differences among
what politicians say they will do,
what they are actually willing to do,
and what they are legally permitted
to do. Here are some early insights
on how to separate those categories
right now.
Can a state withhold federal
funds from the district?
Yes, but only if the district violates
a federal law. " When it comes to federal
funds, the state is really just serving
as a pass-through entity, " Martin
said.
Would a state really dock pay
for district leaders that violate a
state policy?
There's more precedent for something
like this than for withholding
money from an entire district, according
to Martin. At the federal
level, for instance, an obscure and
rarely-invoked policy allows Congress
to adjust a federal employee's
salary to $1, pressuring that employee
to act differently or vacate the
position.
" States are kind of loath to withhold
funding to an entire school
district because of all the people it
would impact, " she said. " I think that
withholding funding for a particular
individual is something that a state
might be more likely to carry out because
it just impacts the individual
who ultimately made the decision. "
If a state were to take this course,
though, " it will ultimately end in
litigation, " especially because of the
high-profile nature of the issue, Martin
said.
If a state cuts a district's funding,
how long would it take for the
district to feel the impact?
It depends. In most states, school
districts follow a familiar procedure
when spending state funds: they
obligate the money first, then request
a " drawdown " from the state
afterwards. States could decline a
Vanessa Solis/Education Week and iStock
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Education Week - August 25, 2021

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