Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday announced schools that impose mask mandates in the state will not have access to a $163 million grant program backed by coronavirus relief funds he controls.
The Republican governor said schools with mask mandates or that have closed due to COVID-19 concerns will not be eligible for an additional $1,800 per student. The announcement comes one day after he issued an executive order banning cities and counties from mandating vaccinations.
“Safety recommendations are welcomed and encouraged — mandates that place more stress on students and families aren’t,” Ducey said in a statement. “These grants acknowledge efforts by schools and educators that are following state laws and keeping their classroom doors open for Arizona’s students.”
School districts currently imposing mask mandates against the governor’s additional executive order that intends to make the mandates no longer enforceable will have 10 days to rescind them or potentially miss out on gaining funding from the grant. The law banning schools from enacting mandates doesn’t go into effect for more than a month.
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“Our COVID-19 Educational Recovery Benefit will empower parents to exercise their choice when it comes to their child’s education and COVID-19 mitigation strategies,” Ducey said.
The governor also announced a $10 million grant that intends to award parents $7,000 for each student if their public school required isolating or quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure or if it gave preferential treatment to vaccinated children or mandated masks. Parents seeking funding “must demonstrate” that their school is doing this, Ducey’s statement indicated.
Democratic state House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding called the governor’s decision a “sickening irony,” saying that “he’s doing this by dangling millions of federally provided funds for COVID-19 relief and forcing school districts to choose between the health and safety of kids and educators, or millions in additional funding that Republicans have withheld for years.”
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On Tuesday, the Arizona Department of Health said an additional 2,661 cases in the state were recorded, along with three fatalities from the virus. The state’s seven-day average stands at roughly 2,814 cases, with nearly 48% of the population vaccinated.
