The Republican Governor Doug Ducey lifted the pandemic restriction in March even as the virulent Delta variant was making an entry. He increased stress on the increasing number of Arizona school districts that have defied the ban against an Arizona mask mandate.
Arizona is slowly inching towards New York death figures from the pandemic when calculated per capita. But New York was devastated in the early stages of the pandemic when treatment and vaccinations were an unknown entity.
The Governor is using every form of strong-arm tactics to prevent schools from going ahead with the Arizona mask mandate. He has declared that schools following Arizona mask mandates, or those that have shut down temporarily because of the COVID-19 spates, will be denied the school grant program
Arizona Mask Mandate Ban A Degenerative Step And Will Cause A Spike In Cases
Such schools will be denied an additional fund of $1,800 per student. The Governor said that while safety recommendations have been encouraged and welcomed, steps such as the Arizona mask mandate placed extra strain on students plus their families.
He reiterated that such funds were an acknowledgment of the efforts of the educators and schools that were following the laws of the state and welcoming students of Arizona during the pandemic.
All school districts that have the Arizona mask mandate in place will be given 10 days to withdraw the Arizona mask mandate if they expect the fund from the state administration. This order stands despite the law banning such rules which will be in force within a month.
The $10M grant program is largely a copy of the voucher school program of the state that awards $7,000 to students if their school mandates quarantine or isolated treatment due to exposure to the virus. The rule also applies to schools that enforce the Arizona mask mandate.
Arizona remains one of the 8 states with executive orders or laws in place that work against the mask mandate. The states are being dragged to court with education advocates filing a suit over the Arizona Mask Ban.
Arizona remains the only state that gives vouchers to students. The Legislature of the state recently rejected expanding the program that gives cash to 10,000 pupils to attend schools.
But more school districts are defying the unscientific provisions of the state financial plan that go against the Arizona mask mandate and are following the recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reginal Bolding, the House Minority Leader, has pointed out the sickening irony of Governor Doug Ducey who is using federal funds to tackle the pandemic to tempt people away from the Arizona mask mandate. US Senator Kyrsten Sinema has termed the action of Ducey as anti-scientific and absurdly dangerous.
