Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday told the governors of Texas and Florida not to be the reason schools are interrupted after they refused to support a CDC recommendation for face masks in classrooms.
'Don't be the reason why schools are interrupted. Our students have suffered enough,' Cardona said when asked his message for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
'Politics doesn't have a role in this. Educators know what to do,' he added.
DeSantis threatened to withhold funds from Florida school districts if they mandate that students wear face coverings. He said the new CDC recommendations for masks in classrooms 'lacks' scientific justification. But several Florida school districts said they would require students to mask-up anyway.
Abbott also said there would be no face mask requirements for Texas school children.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told the governors of Texas and Florida to not be the reason schools are interrupted
The White House has doubled down on blaming the two Republican governors for the rising rates of coronavirus infections in their state.
President Joe Biden had asked DeSantis and Abbott to to 'get out of the way' of restrictions as COVID cases are on the rise. And DeSantis snapped back: 'Why don't you do your job?'
The war of words escalated on Thursday as White House officials followed Biden's lead in bashing Florida and Texas.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki called out DeSantis for 'partisan name calling' during a national pandemic.
'We're here to state the facts. Frankly, our view is that this is too serious, deadly serious, to be doing partisan name calling. That's what we're not doing here. We're focused on providing public health data information to the people of Florida, to make sure they understand what steps they should be taking, even if those are not steps taken at the top of the leadership in that state,' she said.
At the White House COVID briefing on Thursday, response coordinator Jeff Zients noted Florida and Texas have accounted for one-third of new cases in the nation.
'Over the past seven days Florida and Texas have accounted for about one-third of new cases and more than one-third of new hospitalizations,' Zients noted. 'States with some of the lowest vaccination rates account for about half of new cases and hospitalizations in the past week, despite making up less than a quarter of the US population.'
White House COVID response coordinator Jeff Zients noted Florida and Texas have accounted for one-third of new cases in the nation
He also praised six Southern states - Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Mississippi - for seeing a rise in vaccination rates.
Zients also noted the administration was pushing for new action on vaccine requirements, including supporting private
