Face Freedom Scholarship Proposed For Opponents Of Mask Mandates

SARASOTA, FL — State Sen. Joe Gruters is working on legislation to develop a “Face Freedom Scholarship.” His proposed bill would provide private school scholarships to families who oppose required mask mandates in the school districts where they live, he said on his Facebook page.

It would be structured like the HOPE Scholarship, which provides private school vouchers to bullied students, he added. Students would only be able to move to eligible private schools on scholarship.

This legislation is a response to a group of Sarasota County families filing a lawsuit on Oct. 21 against the Sarasota County School Board for requiring masks at schools. The board voted 3-2 at its Oct. 20 meeting to extend the district's mask mandate for students, staff and teachers, originally enacted ahead of the school year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. They're required to continue wearing masks covering their mouth and nose whenever they're indoors on Sarasota County Schools property.

“With families, not elected officials and bureaucrats, being the best decision makers for their children, I believe that all families should have choice in education - from deciding which academic programs best fit the needs of their children to whether they believe their child should or should not be forced to wear a mask in school all day,” Gruters wrote on his Facebook page. “Additionally, by giving families options, this would force school district bureaucrats to ‘face freedom’ as a key consideration when implementing blanket mask mandates.”

He stressed that the scholarship “is not anti-mask legislation” and said he “elect(s) to wear (his) mask often.”

“I will even draft this scholarship to make it crystal clear that there is no ban on the optional use of masks in school,” he wrote. “If teachers, families and children elect to wear a mask at school, they would be permitted to do so. Instead, the Face Freedom Scholarship would simply empower families to make decisions that are best for their children and secure additional options to facilitate those decisions.”

At the Oct. 20 school board meeting, Dr. Manuel E. Gordillo, an infectious disease specialist, expressed concerns about children spreading COVID-19.

"The problem that I see with young children is they live with parents and they live in a community and our community is one where there is a lot of elderly, and poor and disadvantaged populations," he said, as well as those "susceptible to severe illness."

Children "are probably at low risk by themselves," Gordillo added, "but they don't live in a bubble. They live in a community."

Gruters is up for re-election this year. He's running for the District 23 state senate seat.