GOP legislative leaders reject Gov. Tom Wolf’s urgent call to consider mask mandate
Share this post:
Republican legislative leaders are standing firm in their position that when it comes to mask mandates in K-12 classrooms and child-care centers, local officials are better positioned to make those calls.
In a hand-delivered letter to Gov. Tom Wolf, Republican leaders of the GOP-controlled General Assembly on Thursday turned down the governor’s request for the Legislature to return to session immediately to pass a statewide mask mandate for students and young children in light of the surge in covid-19 cases and hospitalizations.
“We believe that the current approach — allowing local officials to manage and respond as needed — makes the most sense and should be continued,” stated the letter signed by Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman, R-Centre County, and House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County.
A spokesman for Wolf said the governor was disappointed by the leaders’ decision and hopeful they reconsider their decision.
“Given the rising case count in Pennsylvania and around the country and the legislature’s desire to be included in emergency response, we thought it was prudent to reach out to try to work with them to keep kids safe and in school,” said Wolf’s press secretary Lyndsay Kensinger.
“Quick action is often what is needed during times of emergency when conditions change. It is critical that we do everything we can to ensure that our kids remain in school full time in person, so parents can remain in the workforce and our students can get the best education.”
With no vaccine yet approved for children under 12, she pointed out 18.2% of Pennsylvania’s children from 10-14 are fully vaccinated and 38.3% of those 15-19 are fully vaccinated. But in many counties where mask mandates are not in place for schools, those percentages are even lower. Since July when schools first began discussing health and safety plans, Pennsylvania’s covid-19 caseload has increased from less than 300 a day to more than 3,000 a day.
Wolf, who has been saying for several months that he favored leaving mask mandates up to local officials, shifted his position this week as schools have begun to reopen for in-person learning and lawmakers began making their positions on masking known to school officials.
Kensinger said the governor continues to believe “decisions are best left to local leaders, but we are increasingly concerned that Republican members are interfering with these decisions and threatening school boards either implicitly or explicitly.”
A delegation of lawmakers from Cumberland and York counties this week sent a letter to school district leaders urging them to consider what the parents who reached out to their legislative offices say they want: no mask mandates.
But in his letter to lawmakers, Wolf said he had heard from an outpouring of calls from parents, teachers, pediatricians and others urging action to mandate masking in K-12 classrooms due to the inaction of many school districts.
Additionally, the state’s teachers unions advocated a school masking requirement as did the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Wolf pointed out just 59 out of 474 districts that submitted health and safety plans to the Department of Education implemented mandatory masking as of the end of July. However, that number has risen since then as school boards have held meetings in the last week or two to revise their policies to require masks in their buildings.
“It is clear that action is needed to ensure children are safe as they return to the classroom,” Wolf said in his letter to lawmakers. “With school having already started in many areas of the state, the time to act is now.”
However, lawmakers, while expressing gratitude at the governor’s willingness to involve them in responding to the pandemic, said increasing vaccination rates is the most effective way to mitigate the virus. They also urged the administration to release more data to help local officials determine the threat the virus is posing to their communities.
Specifically, they said they would like to see a breakdown of covid-19 case data based on the vaccination status of those infected who are infected.
“All Pennsylvanians — both vaccinated and unvaccinated — need to know how their respective group is performing. The rise in new cases within the state and across the country is a clear reminder that we must always be vigilant,” the letter from Corman and Cutler stated.
“However, the impact is not equal everywhere,” the letter stated. “That is why we continue to believe it is the best interest of local communities and their healthcare leaders to make their own mitigation decisions with support from the state, which includes clear and specific data upon which to make the best choices.”