Banning masks is dangerous – for kids, in-person schooling and grandstanding politicians

• Masks are a necessary predicate for any semblance of a normal school year
• The number of COVID cases among children increased 84% in the last week in July
• Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson admitted he regrets banning masks

COVID-19 will bring political ideology to its knees this fall if public schooling begins to look anything like last fall. Parents may have held various differing opinions over the past year, but nearly all expect their children to be returning to school. If anti-mask laws interfere with that, politicians who are part of the problem will pay a price.

In May, with just a couple weeks left in school, vaccinations rapidly accelerating and COVID-19 infections dropping, South Carolina’s governor issued an executive order claiming to prohibit schools from requiring masks. But school was over before anyone could resolve the political chaos he provoked. Several state legislatures similarly passed laws to block or discourage schools from requiring masks. 

These hard-line stances were premised on a COVID-19 battle that looked like it was nearly won. In that context, ideologic stances did not carry real consequences for schools.  Even better, the politicians pushing them could shore up the base for upcoming primaries and elevate their national status. By mid-summer, eight states had banned mask requirements in schools.

School officials are defying governors

Now, almost overnight, the world looks much different. COVID-19 cases are hitting levels not seen since January, a time when very few could get a vaccine and most kids were sitting behind a computer at home. And the demographic group previously least at risk – kids – is now uniquely at risk because they are the only ones who can’t get a vaccine. 

Unsurprisingly, the number of COVID-19 cases among children increased 84% in the last week in July. With school starting and a more contagious variant, those numbers are set to dramatically increase. The one thing that remains constant is that masks are the only means to protect children who venture into the public.

This reality is driving a new political calculus. Last week, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson publicly admitted that he regrets signing a law that banned mask requirements. Not only that, he is calling a special session to reverse the law, which a judge has put on hold. Though not a reversal, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards similarly reinstated a statewide mask mandate that applies to schools. 

In states with less humble governors, state and local officials are acting on their own, sometimes in seemingly direct defiance of their governors. Some state departments of education are encouraging mask mandates even when state law does not.

Villalobos and Lalljee:We are failing at COVID at exactly the wrong time. Time for some truth.

Local officials are not even waiting. In Columbia, South Carolina, for instance, the mayor announced a mandate that applies to schools and says he will use local dollars to enforce it. And school districts, even in Florida and Texas, are going toe-to-toe with their governors, imposing mask mandates regardless of the consequences. 

What state leaders may not yet realize is that the public will rally around mask mandates in schools, and it won’t be partisan. Last year, the fight was whether to physically reopen schools. This year, parents’ working assumption is that schools will be open. If parents face an escalating cycle of quarantines, closures and distance learning, they will be irate with leaders who remain oblivious to the degrading circumstances.

Time to stop scoring political points 

This includes parents who aren’t crazy about mandates. If wearing masks allows kids to stay in school, parents will do what they always do for their children. They will set aside ideology and rigidity. Wearing a mask will be no different than getting dessert without finishing dinner or staying up late because a friend is over. Things that tend to matter most are peace in the house and the consistent support and education that schools provide.

When education gets down to basics, it is always bipartisan. Even when Congress and President Barack Obama couldn’t agree on the time of day, Congress managed to pass the Every Student Succeeds Act, with more than 80% voting in favor. It wasn’t that the bill had good policy in it. Parents, districts and states had just uniformly come to understand the No Child Left Behind Act had to end.

Farewell to deep cleaning:The CDC is mostly on target in rules for opening school this fall

Politicians can ignore bipartisan consensus on complex education issues that voters don’t fully understand – things like funding formulas and curriculum. But the issue right now could not be clearer. Masks are a necessary predicate for any semblance of a normal school year. State leaders may be able to grandstand for a few more weeks, but once they place everyone’s schooling at risk, hell hath no fury like parents who believe their kids could have been in school.

Derek W. Black (@DerekWBlack) is the Ernest F. Hollings Chair in Constitutional Law at the University of South Carolina and author of "Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy."