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Governor Ron DeSantis has threatened to withhold funding from school districts that implement mandatory mask mandates in the fall, which has drawn blowback from his potential 2022 Democratic opponents.

Gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Crist made it clear Wednesday the upcoming school year would look significantly different if he were in charge.

Former-Governor, now Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist held a virtual press conference with teachers, parents and a pediatrician, all who support mandatory masks in schools.

“The data is clear that we have to protect ourselves via face coverings, other mitigation strategies like hand washing and distancing, and most important vaccination,” said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a Pediatrician at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Crist made it known if he were Governor he’d make mandatory masking in schools the policy statewide.

“I know the right thing to do is to have a mask requirement for our kids. Let’s put them first instead of any other political consideration,” said Crist.

Brevard County parent Jabari Hosey said he was considering sending his student to private a private school where masks are mandatory.

“But we would of course like them to attend our public school, which is here in our neighborhood,” said Hosey.

Pinellas County parent Stephanie Cox expressed fear for her 10-year-old son who has type one diabetes.

“I’m concerned. I know that he’s 10, he’s not able to be vaccinated yet,” said Cox.

Governor DeSantis has been criticized for his COVID roundtables being too one sided.

One thing DeSantis and Crist have in common on this issue, is they’re both excluding dissenting voices and they both claim to have science on their side.

“The science is clear on this issue that wearing masks makes you safer than not doing so,” said Crist.

In a statement, the Governor’s Press Secretary Christina Pushaw said “The CDC has not been able to produce any data to support mandating cloth face coverings from any randomized controlled trials.”

Pushaw added that last year, schools with and without mask mandates had similar cases numbers.

So far Broward County has not voted to remove its mask mandate for schools, and on the call a member of the Broward County School Board, which passed a masking mandate for the fall, said the board is considering legal action to fight the Governor’s mask mandate ban.

Alachua County is requiring face masks for the first two weeks and Duval is requiring parents to undergo and opt-out process if they don’t want their children masked.