The Florida Department of Education withheld more than $600,000 this month from two counties that are openly defying the state’s restriction on blanket mask mandates. The move is in open defiance of the Biden administration, which had warned in a letter on Monday that the federal government “is prepared to initiate enforcement action to stop these impermissible state actions.” The Florida Department of Education (FDOE) withheld $164,000 from Alachua County and $455,000 from Broward County. The two amounts consist of a portion of the salaries of the school board members for each county as well as the full amount of federal grants that the counties applied for. The federal grants were meant to replenish the money the county schools were being docked for defying the state’s restriction on school mask mandates. The penalties are the latest in the political saga between the White House and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over the …