DeSantis Wins For Schoolkids' Mask Freedom In FLA Court

P. Gardner Goldsmith | September 14, 2021

CNN reports that, as expected, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ Executive Order to stop local school districts from mandating masks on school kids has been upheld by a state appeals court.

The Florida First District Court found in favor of the governor on Friday, September 10, flipping the ruling of a lower court.

The state threatened to withhold funding from districts that violated the order and required masks, but 13 Florida school districts have implemented mask mandates without a parental opt-out, in defiance of the governor.

DeSantis tweeted he was not surprised by Friday's ruling.

‘The 1st DCA has restored the right of parents to make the best decisions for their children. I will continue to fight for parents' rights,’ he added.

And, of course, the Biden Administration is stepping in where it does not constitutionally or ethically belong. Last month, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki radiated pure hostility and a seemingly insatiable desire to invert reality by claiming that DeSantis’ move to protect parental choice from school board mandates was, somehow, ANTI-freedom. As I wrote at the time:

Perhaps Jen has been too busy to understand that when a politician tries to make sure other politicians and bureaucrats don’t apply force to parents and kids, that’s NOT a decrease in freedom. It’s an relative increase in freedom.

Of course, Psaki and the Bidenistas never tire, and so, as CNN notes, Biden got his unconstitutional Carter-era creation of the Education Department to target Florida:

The civil rights enforcement arm of the US Department of Education added to the issue Friday, saying it is opening an investigation into whether the Florida education department ‘may be preventing school districts in the state from considering or meeting the needs of students with disabilities’ with the mask mandate ban.

And, despite the debates about masks, numerous leftist school administrations in Florida are proceeding with their commands to force kids into masks for nearly seven hours a day.

But is it just the masks that should turn on alarm lights for parents and other taxpayers? Is it only NOW that some folks should get off the tax-paid electric chair of government schooling and, instead, turn to a competitive market that proves it can teach kids without compelling people to pay for it?

It’s a time that people who oppose masks and support masks to see that, whether it’s mask mandates or requirements for English class reading lists, public schools don’t provide choice and freedom, and they don’t provide the level of educational excellence that the private market provides.

And government makes virtually everyone argue with each other about how to run the system.

This is a moment we can learn, and try to escape a provably unworkable system.

For most of American history, people were well educated through that private, voluntary system.

Why not rekindle that system, and give kids freedom, rather than have Biden, Psaki, and others argue with us over it?

 

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