President Joe Biden directed the Department of Education this week to begin targeting Republican states that passed or enacted mask mandate bans for schools.
While some Republican-led states have already taken action to offer educators, parents, and students the choice to mask up, Biden is using bureaucratic power to strong-arm states into doing his bidding on masks, no matter how political his motivations might be. Scientific studies are clear that COVID-19 transmission among children is much lower than adults but that hasn’t stopped the administration, the CDC, and teachers unions from pushing for students and vaccinated teachers to mask up this fall.
“We are not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators protecting our children,” Biden said.
Under the guise of “civil rights” and giving equal justice to Americans under the law, Biden ordered his Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who publicly said he is “appalled that there are adults who are blind to their blindness, that there are people who are putting policies in place that are putting students and staff at risk,” to launch investigations into the states that do not allow face-covering requirements.
The Department plans to use its civil rights enforcement sect to sort through complaints from “parents and advocates who argue that prohibiting masks mandates could deny a student their right to an education by putting them in harm’s way in school” and justify further examinations.
In addition to engaging in overreaching bureaucratic oversight, the Biden administration also plans to publicly chastise Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah in letters about their states’ efforts to bar school mask mandates. Cardona already began threatening Florida and Texas for adopting policies that “may infringe upon a school district’s authority to adopt policies to protect students and educators as they develop their safe return to in-person instruction plans required by federal law.”
During his speech promoting this bullying by the federal government, Biden falsely claimed that GOP governors are “setting a dangerous tone” banning the use of “masks” in schools.
“Unfortunately, as we have seen throughout this pandemic, some politicians are trying to turn public safety measures — children wearing masks in school — into political disputes for their own political gain. Some are even trying to take power away from local educators by banning masks in school. They are setting a dangerous tone,” he said.
Biden calls out governors who are “trying to take power away from local educators” by banning masks in schools and says they’re setting a dangerous tone: “The intimidation and the threats we are seeing across the country are wrong. They’re unacceptable” https://t.co/LUXAdUHM8Y pic.twitter.com/bHT1DN8jQE
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 18, 2021
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten quickly picked up on this narrative and spewed the same lie to Twitter followers soon after.
This is very god news. I'm glad Biden and Cardona are taking this seriously. We are in the midst of a delta surge.. Let’s keep our kids in school & safe. That’s why No Governor should be banning masks in schools. https://t.co/2XHVntgBBR
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) August 18, 2021
Just last week, Biden praised the people who go against this science and force children to wear masks as “heroes.”
“To the mayors, school superintendents, educators, local leaders who are standing up to the governors politicizing mask protection for our kids, thank you. Thank you as well. Thank God that we have heroes like you,” Biden said.
Source: The Federalist
