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BELLEFONTE -- Mandatory masks will return to Pennsylvania schools on Tuesday, Sept. 7.
Earlier this week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf announced that masking will be required in all state public and private schools, as well as childcare facilities.
The announcement was widely criticized by Republicans in the General Assembly, including two high-ranking legislators from Centre County.
"Protecting the health and safety of our children is always a top consideration for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle," Senate President Pro Tempore Jake Corman (R-Benner Township), said in a news release. "However, this is exactly the kind of government overreach voters opposed when they stripped Governor Wolf of the authority to unilaterally extend emergency declarations in May."
Corman added that it is "completely disingenuous for (Gov. Wolf) to flip-flop now." He noted that during the summer months, Gov. Wolf said that the decision was best left to local officials based on current data.
"The timing of this announcement is also extremely problematic," Corman said. "Over the past month, school board meetings were turned into public spectacles with school board directors, parents, teachers and community members lobbing insults and accusations. It is disappointing Governor Wolf stood idly by and allowed our communities to be torn apart by this debate, only to pull the rug out from everyone at the last minute. Our school boards deserve an apology for the governor's dereliction of duty."
Corman also questioned Beam's authority to enforce a mandatory masking order. The Wolf administration said in a statement the Secretary of Health is provided with the authority by the Disease Control and Prevention Act and that the measure was taken because "Republican leaders declined to act," when asked to take up legislation for a mask mandate.
"If Governor Wolf truly believed he had this authority, then he would not have asked the General Assembly to implement a mask mandate just last week," Corman said.
State House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff (R-Bellefonte), joined Corman in condemning the mandate, saying that the decision should fall to "local control that reflects on-the-ground realities."
"History shows that a one-sizes, fits-all approach to public health causes more anxiety and frustration than decisions made at the local level with local input," Benninghoff said. "What's more is that local control has been working. School boards and local governments have been hearing from families and individuals and making the decisions that best fit their community needs and reflect their community values."
Benninghoff added that House Republicans "are already in the process of taking a serious look at potential legislative changes that address this administration's misuse of current law."
"We share in the goal of promoting public health and ending this pandemic as quickly as possible," Benninghoff said. "As we review the specifics of this mandate, all options remain on the table."
Rep. Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton/Centre) made the following statement on her Facebook page: "Mandates are NOT law. That is not how it works in America. The governor tried to call us back to mandate masks through legislation we said NO ... now he goes around the Legislature. When people stand up and refuse to comply, it ends."
However, the mandate was not met with complete negativity.
The Pennsylvania State Education Association took the opposite stance. According to PSEA President Rich Askey, the masking mandate is long overdue.
"PSEA supports the Wolf administration's order (Tuesday) requiring universal masking in all K-12 school buildings. Months ago, PSEA said a full, safe return to in-person instruction should be our top priority for the 2021-22 school year. Masking up in our schools is a simple, proven way to help make that a reality," Askey said in a news release.
According to Askey, masking kept many schools open last year.
"Last year, we used maximum protective efforts -- including masking -- to minimize the spread of a dangerous but less contagious COVID-19 variant," Askey said. "Reports of schools in other states shutting down or quarantining large numbers of students because of the more contagious Delta variant show that it is just too risky to teach students in person with dramatically fewer protections than we used last year."