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Treasury warns Arizona it can’t use federal funds to undermine school mask requirements By Reuters



© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An indication advertises free masks to forestall the unfold of the coronavirus illness (COVID-19), on the downtown bus station in Tucson, Arizona, U.S., June 20, 2020. REUTERS/Cheney Orr

By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo advised Arizona’s governor on Tuesday that his state couldn’t use federal funds to pay for applications aimed toward undermining face masks necessities in colleges, and stated Arizona may lose funding if it didn’t change course.

In a letter to Governor Douglas Ducey, Adeyemo raised issues about two new Arizona state applications funded beneath the coronavirus aid “American Rescue Plan” which he stated would “undermine evidence-based efforts to cease the unfold of COVID-19.”

Adeyemo’s letter comes a month after the U.S. Division of Training opened civil rights investigations https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-education-dept-opens-investigations-5-states-regarding-bans-universal-masking-2021-08-30 to find out whether or not 5 states – Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah – which have banned colleges from requiring masks are discriminating in opposition to college students with disabilities.

One of many Arizona applications presents grants to high school districts on situation they not require using face coverings throughout tutorial hours. The second provides households a voucher of as much as $7,000 per scholar to cowl tuition or different instructional prices at a brand new faculty that doesn’t require face coverings if the coed’s present faculty requires them.

Each applications tapped a $350 billion fund established beneath the American Rescue Plan to mitigate the fiscal results of the COVID-19 emergency, which has killed over 700,000 folks in the US, Adeyemo stated in his letter.

“A program or service that imposes circumstances on participation or acceptance of the service that may undermine efforts to cease the unfold of COVID-19 or discourage compliance with evidence-based options for stopping the unfold of COVID-19 just isn’t a permissible use of (such) funds,” he stated.

Adeyemo requested Ducey to reply inside 30 days on how Arizona deliberate to come back into compliance with the federal necessities, warning that “failure to reply or remediate could end in administrative or different motion.” Such motion included federal efforts to recoup the funds, a Treasury official stated.

Florida, Texas and Arkansas have additionally banned necessary masking orders in colleges. The Training Division left these states and Arizona out of its inquiry as a result of courtroom orders or different actions have paused their enforcement, it stated in a information launch.

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