Joe Biden, the 47th vice president of the United States, was the featured guest for the Tom Johnson Lectureship at the LBJ Presidential Library on Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2017. The conversation was moderated by Mark Updegrove, former director of the LBJ Library. 10/03/2017 LBJ Library photo by Jay Godwin
Here’s something to try to wrap your head around:
Compulsory mask-wearing is now a civil right—but access to in-person classroom instruction isn’t.
President Biden has ordered Education Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to use “all available tools” to make GOP governors lift their mask mandate ban, reports the WSJ.
Mr. Cardona has sent letters threatening to cut off federal K-12 funds in the March spending bill for eight Republican-led states (Florida, Texas, Arizona, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah) that have prohibited school mask mandates. He also threatened to sic the Office for Civil Rights on the states.
Mr. Cardona warned in a blog post:
“The Department has the authority to investigate any state educational agency whose policies or actions may infringe on the rights of every student to access public education equally.”
Masks are a public policy question, reminds the WSJ, and “politicians should not be weaponizing civil-rights law.”
By intervening in the state and local mask brawls, Mr. Biden is fomenting more conservative opposition to masks and perhaps vaccines too.
It is hard not to think that Joe Biden is more preoccupied with the fight over masks than with the fight in Afghanistan.
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