Arizona’s Ducey, accused of misusing COVID relief money, blasts Biden admin ’overreach’

Arizona’s Gov. Doug Ducey accused the Biden administration of “federal overreach” this week after the Treasury Department stated the state’s educational grants particularly for schools without masks mandates have been an improper use of federal coronavirus relief money.

“We’ve got no plan to address what they’re sending us,” Ducey, a Republican, stated this week, according to FOX 10 in Phoenix. “That can be settled in court. We will give choices to children in Arizona and to families in Arizona – what we ought to be focused on now could be getting children caught up.”

A $10 million grant program established by Ducey in August reportedly gives households $7,000 vouchers if they want to move their kids from a school with a mandate to a school without one.

Another $163 million grant program Ducey created is offered solely to schools without masks mandates, according to the station.

Ducey’s grants “undermine evidence-based efforts to stop the spread of COVID-19,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote in a letter Tuesday, asking the governor to specify how the state will fix the situation within 30 days, FOX 10 reported.

“Right here in Arizona, we trust families to make decisions which are best for their kids,” Ducey tweeted on Tuesday. “It’s clear that President Biden doesn’t feel the same. He’s focused on taking power away from American households by issuing restrictive and dictatorial mandates for his own political gain.”

Arizona is amongst a number of Republican-led states which have banned masks mandates in schools.

In Florida, the Biden administration was offering federal assistance to any school district board members who lost wages by defying Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on masks mandates.

On Thursday, the Florida Board of Education stated it will penalize schools that continue to defy the ban. The U.S. Department of Education warned that could be illegal, according to The Washington Post.