The Department of Education announced on Monday that it is launching an investigation into five states that have implemented mask mandate bans, claiming that such bans could pose a danger to students’ health.
The investigation by the department’s civil rights office will look into Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah, where Republican lawmakers have barred school districts from implementing mask mandates. In their probe, the department will seek to determine whether the bans have violated the law in discriminating against students who are more susceptible to COVID-19.
“The Department has heard from parents from across the country – particularly parents of students with disabilities and with underlying medical conditions – about how state bans on universal indoor masking are putting their children at risk and preventing them from accessing in-person learning equally,” said Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in a statement. “It’s simply unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of the students they took an oath to serve.”
In a press release on the investigation, the department says that it is not looking into other states with mask bans because those bans aren’t currently being enforced uniformly. Indeed, bans implemented by the Republican governors of Florida, Texas, Arkansas and Arizona aren’t currently enforced because of court decisions, school districts’ refusals to comply, legislative restrictions, or a combination of several factors. The Education Department will instead continue to monitor those four states for potential violations, it said.
The investigation is part of an ongoing effort by the Biden administration to crack down on governors — Republicans, largely — who are making returning to in-person schooling more hazardous for children, their families, and staff.
In their press release, the Education Department said that the investigation was part of an effort by the agency to comply with an order from President Biden earlier this month that directed Cardona to “assess all available tools in taking action, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law” to ensure that in-person schooling amid COVID can remain safe.
Letters sent to state heads of schools from the Education Department cite concerning statistics about child COVID rates and research showing that masks are largely effective at preventing spread of the virus, despite the personal opinions of Republican leaders.
While many schools were not open for in-person instruction full-time through last year, the Biden administration has taken steps to encourage schools to reopen. Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, following a threat that President Donald Trump made last year, threatened this month to withhold funding from schools if they implement a mask mandate in defiance of his ban.
Some Republicans like Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa falsely claim that masks are bad for children psychologically, implying that those imagined effects could be worse than a child or their family members contracting and potentially dying of COVID-19. Right-wing pundits and lawmakers have been trying to say, without evidence, that children are negatively harmed by having to wear a mask, but research has shown that if there are negative effects from mask-wearing on children, they are negligible.
Other Republicans like South Carolina’s Republican Gov. Henry McMaster falsely claim that there’s evidence that schools are safe havens from COVID, although no such evidence exists.
The first few weeks of the school year have so far shown that this is anything but true. COVID cases have spread like wildfire among children as schools return to in-person education. Pediatric hospitalizations due to COVID have shot up to record highs over the course of this month and dozens of children have died.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy