Florida school officials could lose salaries over mask mandates

The Florida State Board of Education could withhold the salaries of public school officials who defy Gov. Ron DeSantis’s executive order prohibiting mask mandates, his office said Monday.

A statement from the Republican governor’s office offered the withholding of paychecks owed to superintendents or school board members as a prospective means of enforcing a July 30 order that blocks locally enacted masking requirements for school children. His order already directed the state’s education commissioner to withhold funds from school boards that choose to impose requirements.