New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to announce Friday that K-12 school students in the state will have to wear masks at the start of the academic year, a reversal of previous guidance that left mandates up to individual districts.
NBC New York reports it will be the topic of the major health announcement that Mr. Murphy, a Democrat, scheduled for the afternoon in East Brunswick.
Mr. Murphy, who is seeking reelection to a second term in November, said in June he did not expect to mandate masks in schools. But the COVID-19 situation has worsened in the U.S. and the Garden State due to the fast-moving delta variant. Most New Jersey counties have fallen into “high” or “substantial” transmission categories over the past week.
Mr. Murphy‘s stance follows the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recently advised all students, teachers and staff to mask up this fall.
Republican leaders in states like Texas and Florida, meanwhile, are fighting mask mandates in schools. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said parents should choose whether to cover their children’s faces and threatened to cut funding to school districts that impose mandates.
The shift in the battle against COVID-19 has caused others to rethink their position. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, signed a bill banning mask mandates in schools but now says he regrets it because of the devastation the delta variant has inflicted in his state.
Atlanta Public Schools recently opened with a mask mandate, though the rest of Georgia doesn’t have a requirement.
Nearly 60% of New Jersey’s population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, although children under age 12 are not eligible for the shots in the U.S., shifting the focus to other ways to prevent outbreaks in schools.
Former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for New Jersey governor, slammed Mr. Murphy‘s turnabout on masks.
“Governor Phil Murphy has done it again. His decision to require masks for K-12 students is a bewildering reversal of his position of just a few weeks ago. Let me be clear: I oppose Governor Murphy‘s mask mandate for students,” he said.
He said children who get the coronavirus tend to be asymptomatic or have a mild illness, “and wearing masks for children is terrible for their social and emotional development.”
“Bottom line — whether a child wears a mask should be decided by parents, not government,” he said. “If someone wants to have their child wear a mask, they should feel free to do so, but it’s not something that should be forced on children, nor should their learning be inhibited in any way. Finally, this feels like the first step towards another Murphy lockdown, which is something our children, businesses and taxpayers cannot afford or are willing to accept.”
