Opinion

OPINION | BRENDA BLAGG: Will legislators help?

Session called to give local school boards mask flexibility

Arkansas lawmakers have gathered again in Little Rock in the midst of controversy.

They're there because they passed legislation earlier this year that lets them review Gov. Asa Hutchinson's use of emergency powers. It looked then like a legislative power grab, one that could impede the state's response to an emergency.

Yet, with the number of new covid-19 cases rapidly rising and hospital capacity under strain again, Hutchinson last week reinstated the statewide public health emergency he had declared early in the pandemic.

That alone would have triggered legislative oversight.

But Hutchinson also announced his intent to call the Legislature into special session this week to address the narrow issue of whether to allow local school boards to decide whether to require masks, particularly for children under 12 years old, who are ineligible to be vaccinated against the virus.

First things first, the House and Senate met Tuesday in separate committee of the whole meetings to review Hutchinson's new emergency declaration. The only resolution filed against it was withdrawn and both chambers adjourned quickly.

The governor had not, as of early Tuesday, actually called the special session, but proposed legislation is reportedly circulating among lawmakers, some of whom have vowed to stand behind another law they passed this year that bars both state and local governments, including public schools, from requiring masks.

That law, Act 1002, sponsored by Sen. Trent Garner, R-El Dorado, became effective July 28. It would be amended by the draft legislation now being circulated to lift the mask prohibition in kindergarten through 12th grade public schools.

Obviously, the timing is critical if the law is to be changed before Arkansas students return to school later this month.

Lawmakers were expecting to be called back by 10 a.m. today.

Whether they are called into session may depend on how the vote count looks.

Act 1002 passed by strong majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. The governor needs to persuade not just a majority of each house to change the law, but two-thirds of the members to pass an emergency clause to let it go into effect immediately.

Otherwise, the state prohibition of mask mandates would stay in effect until November.

Even a simple majority vote was in question as the week began, however.

Hutchinson acknowledged last week that legislative leaders had cautioned that passage of an amended law would be a "heavy lift."

Arkansans are divided about the issue and so are their elected representatives and senators.

When the Legislature met earlier in the year, it was obvious that most lawmakers wanted to curb the governor's emergency powers because of constituent complaints about mask mandates and other restrictions imposed by the state.

The availability of vaccines for covid-19, and what was a declining rate of infection as more and more people got vaccinated, probably aided passage of the resulting legislation.

In the time since, the Delta variant of covid-19 hit Arkansas and the rest of the U.S., making people sicker quicker and spreading with abandon. Its victims are often younger and include the school-age children for whom Hutchinson wants school boards to be able to require masks.

The surge in infections has continued for weeks now, with hospital staffs particularly strained and available beds for covid-19 and other patients at or near capacity.

On the day the governor reinstated the health emergency, a few Arkansas patients were actually being held in ambulances awaiting a bed.

Hutchinson, and state health leaders, including hospital administrators, continue to plead with Arkansans to get vaccinated.

The governor has traveled around the state, convening community meetings to answer questions and hear concerns from Arkansans.

He has seen for himself how strongly some in the state oppose vaccines for themselves or their children but don't want to be mandated to wear masks or take other precautions against infection.

That doesn't make it any less necessary for more Arkansans to be vaccinated and for all of us, including those of us who are vaccinated, to act responsibly.

This pandemic is not over and any of us can be infected or carry this highly contagious Delta virus to others.

If you're fully vaccinated, you are more likely to avoid serious illness, hospitalization or death. If you're not vaccinated, you may be one of the people trying to find a hospital bed and medical staff to treat you.

In the meantime, it will be up to lawmakers to decide whether to let school boards require masks in the schools.

It is a decision legislators will make based on what they think their constituents want, so speak out to them now.

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