Education secretary says he's spoken with schools defying mask mandate bans

U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona says he's in touch with superintendents who are actively defying Florida and Texas governors' orders not to mandate masks.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said he's in touch with superintendents who are actively defying Florida and Texas governors' orders not to mandate masks in schools and will have their back should they lose state funding. "I have had conversations with superintendents and they have asked if this goes in that direction, how do we get support? My message is, open the schools safely. We got your back," Cardona told ABC News in an exclusive interview Tuesday after touring P.S. 5 Port Morris, a public school in the Bronx. Last week, Cardona sent a letter to superintendents in Florida reassuring them that if Gov. Ron DeSantis followed through on a threat to withhold salaries from schools that imposed mask mandates, federal funding could make up the difference. The Republican governor has banned mask mandates in the state of Florida -- which has the highest case rate in the nation -- an order that goes against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's latest guidance for all students and school faculty to wear masks in the classroom this fall because of the heightened spread of the delta variant. Cardona also expressed hope that schools will stay in session this year.