Pérez offers to help pay penalties for schools that act to protect students

Texas State Board of Education Member Georgina Pérez is offering to raise funds to help cover any penalty imposed on districts that violate Gov. Greg Abbott's latest executive order banning COVID-19 mitigation strategies.

Gov. Abbott issued executive order GA-38 last week which prohibits local government entities, including school districts, from enforcing proven mitigation strategies such as immunization and the use of face coverings. Under this order, school districts that act to protect the health of local communities by implementing the same strategies that helped slow the spread of COVID-19 last year are now subject to a fine of up to $1,000.

Member Pérez has offered to raise private funds to help pay the fine for any district punished under order GA-38 for acting to protect students and staff.

"Governor Abbott's latest politically-driven order will kill people. Period." Perez said. "Local leaders of good conscience are obligated to ignore this fraud and act on their own to safeguard the lives of our precious children and the educators who serve them. A thousand bucks is a small price to pay."
The highly infectious Delta variant has caused COVID-19 hospitalizations to skyrocket across Texas just as millions of children too young to be vaccinated, some of whom suffer from preexisting health conditions, return to school.

The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that children account for 1 in 6 new COVID-19 cases and has recommended all children over the age of 2 wear masks. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has likewise recommended all students wear masks when they return to classrooms.