Maryland school board sets the standard for going maskless, amid surge in COVID-19 cases | COMMENTARY
The first week of December would seem an odd time to be talking about relaxing standards for mask wearing in schools, given that the world is grappling with the recently emerged omicron variant of COVID-19, which already has led to an alarming rise in U.S. hospitalizations. Just one week ago, President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor was gently reminding Americans to keep wearing masks and to maintain social distancing as well as to receive their booster shots, in light of the omicron threat. Yet in Maryland, here we are with emergency regulations approved Tuesday by the state school board that set the circumstances under which local school districts could return to the maskless days of the past.
And it actually makes perfect sense.
What the Maryland Board of Education this week approved by a 12-to-1 vote is essentially just another educational standard — an important one. Through its emergency regulations, the board has properly set the bar for all to see: Hit this mark and we can dispense with the masks. In this case, it’s an 80% vaccination rate within the system as well as within the broader subdivision, and the local transmission levels must for at least two weeks be regarded as low or moderate as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Right now, no Maryland school system qualifies, but some, like Howard County’s, are getting close.
Why those particular numbers? As Superintendent of Schools Mohammed Choudhury and board members explain, they are based on the experience of schools and school systems across the country. Where standards have been set too low, mask-wearing policy has been lifted and then imposed again as positivity rates spring back up. The 80% bar appears to be working for Massachusetts, for example, where some schools have hit the mark, dropped the mask requirement, but not seen an increase in cases. Is it perfect? Perhaps not, but it appears to be the best, science-backed standard available at the moment.
And here’s where the policy is really smart: By setting the bar this precisely, the board is providing a powerful incentive for Maryland’s students and educational staff (and even parents and other residents to some degree) to hew the line now, to get their vaccinations and boosters, and to follow CDC-recommended policies, because there is a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s the same reason educators set pass-fail standards on curriculum. There is not just a stick, there is a carrot. You are not just following these requirements because some bureaucrat has decided vaccinations and masks are appropriate, you are now given a goal. Meet that goal and the restriction is lifted: You graduate.
We have watched government at all levels deal with permutations of this carrot or stick dilemma. In Baltimore, for example, city government workers were given a mandate last summer: get vaccinated or submit to regular testing. This week, the pendulum swung in a different direction as Mayor Brandon Scott offered city employees a $1,000 bonus for getting vaccinated between now and mid-January. Both approaches are understandable but, added together, the policy lacks some coherence. And it’s this kind of let’s try this, no try that, quality that does not always inspire public confidence.
The school board’s emergency action still faces a procedural hurdle. It now must be approved by the Maryland General Assembly through its Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review and a vote is not expected until January at the earliest. Some lawmakers may oppose it, if only because teachers’ unions find it reasonable and there are inevitably some in the State House who are reflexively opposed to whatever the unions endorse. But it’s likely to ultimately be approved. It just makes too much sense not to do so.
Still, there remain a lot of uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. The exact impact of omicron, for example, is evolving almost daily as the science becomes more clear. But that’s not an argument to not set standards, it’s merely a caution that even 20 months into this global pandemic, there are no absolutes aside from the need to better understand the virus in all its forms and adjust our public health strategies accordingly. In other words, knowledge is more vital than ever. Is there a better place to dispense that lesson than in schools?
Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.
