The problem with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s retreat from California’s school mask mandate

Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s insistence that “the latest data and science” continue to guide his COVID policy, his administration’s abandonment of school mask requirements this week amounted to a bare-faced concession to strident voices and shortsighted politics. In the name of defusing the governor’s loudest critics and appeasing those insisting on convenience over caution, the decision will leave teachers and schools vulnerable to the vagaries of the virus and students susceptible to still more educational deprivation.

The fading winter surge and rising vaccination rates certainly warrant some easing of mask mandates and other precautions. But the importance of keeping schools open and functional justifies retaining the added protection of masks while so many young Californians remain unvaccinated.

More than a third of California children ages 12 to 17 and over two-thirds of 5- to 11-year-olds are not fully vaccinated, according to state data, and vaccines remain unavailable to children under 5. The proportion of the school-age population without a single vaccine dose is at least twice the rate among adults.

The governor’s porous COVID vaccination requirement for schoolchildren, which awaits full rather than emergency Food and Drug Administration approval and allows families to opt out based on personal beliefs, has yet to take effect. And the Legislature has just begun considering a sensible bill by state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, to add COVID to the list of legally required school vaccinations, which would limit exemptions to legitimate medical reasons.

Two weeks after the state’s broader indoor mask mandate expired, Newsom nevertheless announced this week that he would drop the requirement for schools and child care centers as of March 12. The administration’s position is a departure from that of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advises Americans to wear masks in schools and other indoor locations in places with high coronavirus transmission, including a majority of California counties.

Despite the vocal minority disrupting school board meetings across the state, the administration is also at odds with most Californians. According to a recent poll by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, nearly two-thirds of the state’s voters support requiring masks in schools, with even greater support among Black and Latino Californians, who have been disproportionately sickened and killed by the virus.

Even the governor appeared to be having an argument with his own policy. Although the administration will no longer require masks in classrooms, it continues to “strongly recommend” them — a regrettable attempt to have it both ways and let others sort out the mess.

It’s not difficult to predict where this will lead. The Bee reported that nearly 200 Rocklin Unified School District teachers called in sick or took leave Monday to protest the school board’s defiance of the state mask mandate. Although districts are allowed to continue requiring masks — and large districts such as San Francisco and Los Angeles are doing so for the time being — the state’s reversal leaves them more vulnerable to political pressure. That’s bound to lead to more outbreaks, labor strife, and other disruptions, with all the repercussions for children that became all too familiar during the prolonged school closures that followed the pandemic’s onset.

Too many Americans have been misled into mistaking minor public health precautions for an affront to their liberty and misconstruing selfishness as a fight for freedom. Our leaders should resist the urge to pander to such impulses and summon the courage to stand up for the well-being of the public and particularly the most vulnerable among us.