Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on March 9, 2020, about a week after the first coronavirus cases were reported. He issued an executive order that relied on his “supreme executive power” granted by the state Constitution. In an emergency, state law gives the governor authority to impose curfews, execute no-bid contracts and declare martial law.
The threat of COVID-19 is still with us, but Florida is no longer in a state of emergency. DeSantis ended it on July 1 in another executive order. Despite a major resurgence of the virus and record hospitalizations across the state, DeSantis dismissed it Tuesday as “media hysteria.”
So we can presumably all relax. But the executive orders keep coming — and that reveals a governor who’s playing politics.
DeSantis has gone too far with an order that prevents school districts and their elected leaders from imposing any mask requirements on students, and threatens to punish them if they do by taking away state money.
That’s our money that’s spent mostly to teach our kids. Who is DeSantis punishing?
Any executive order should be narrowly tailored to achieve a result that’s clearly in the public interest, such as protecting public health. That should be achieved without violating individual rights or using the power of the state to trample on home rule authority of local government — in this case, the 67 school districts whose leaders are elected by voters.
In Executive Order 21-175, issued July 30, DeSantis directed Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran, a political appointee, to “pursue all legal means available to ensure school districts adhere to Florida law, including but not limited to withholding state funds from noncompliant school boards violating any rules or agency action …” That’s a direct threat to defund our schools.
The order’s “whereas” clauses that lay out the supposed justification for this overreach contain political hyperbole dressed up as fact.
For example, the order states, without evidence, that “masking children may lead to negative health and societal ramifications” (Really? Says who?) and “forcing children to wear masks could inhibit breathing.”
Small-government conservatives should be appalled by such a heavy-handed use of state power to punish another layer of government. It is excessive and divisive and may not even be legal, which is why it needs to be challenged in Florida courts.
Look closer. The order compels school districts to “adhere to the law,” but nothing in current law expressly prohibits a district from mandating that students wear masks to inhibit the spread of COVID-19. On the contrary, the law requires school districts to safeguard the “welfare” of all students and gives districts authority to exercise any power not prohibited by law or the Constitution.
A careful reading of the order shows that DeSantis is not threatening to personally withhold money from districts. Instead, he passes this buck to the state health and education departments, giving unelected bureaucrats even more power. Is that the kind of accountability you want as a Florida taxpayer?
The order further directs those two agencies to immediately adopt rules to ensure that school boards “do not violate Floridians’ constitutional freedoms” or violate parents’ rights “to make health care decisions for their minor children.” As conservatives have warned for years, rulemaking is how bureaucrats expand the reach of government in ways that legislators never intended.
DeSantis’ latest order achieved its immediate effect, which was to intimidate the Broward school board into backing down from its plan to make masks mandatory for students when schools open Aug. 18. But on Tuesday, two other districts, Jacksonville’s Duval and Alachua in Gainesville, voted to impose masks for students, setting up possible clashes with the governor. Duval will allow parents to opt out in writing; Alachua will re-evaluate its decision at an Aug. 17 meeting.
No one should be more outraged about this power grab than members of the Florida Legislature, the people who appropriate the money that runs public schools. But there has not been one peep from Republican legislative leaders, who are simply unwilling to challenge this governor, even when he usurps their power, too.
Decisions regarding the spending of legislatively appropriated money should be made in conjunction with the Legislature. But the fiercely determined DeSantis is hell-bent to go-it-alone, and almost no one in his party is willing to challenge him.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editor Dan Sweeney and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.
