Statewide Iowa — Governor Kim Reynolds says she’ll go to court if the Biden Administration tries to overturn the law she signed that has banned mask mandates in Iowa schools.
Biden has asked the U.S. Education Secretary to determine if the mask bans in six states, including Iowa, violate federal law.
Reynolds ordered schools closed at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020, but she ordered schools to offer in-person classes last fall. In February, Reynolds signed a law requiring all schools to have classes in person. In May, Reynolds signed a law forbidding schools from requiring students and staff to wear face coverings.
Reynolds says the ban on mask mandates in schools promotes the social and emotional wellbeing of children
Reynolds says N-95 masks have been shown to prevent the spread of Covid, but she is expressing doubts that cloth or paper masks are effective.
The Centers for Disease Control is recommending that everyone in schools wear face coverings as the Delta variant of Covid is far more contagious and most students have not been vaccinated. Reynolds says Biden needs to stop dictating to states and the governor says she’s not concerned about losing federal funds if there is a dispute with the Biden Administration over this policy.
The governor says Biden should focus on other things, like the airlift out of Afghanistan and closing down the southern border. Zach Wahls of Coralville, the Iowa Senate’s Democratic leader, says the governor should be focused on the unabated spread of Covid.
Wahls says banning mask mandates in schools is putting school staff, children and their parents at extreme risk.
Democratic leaders in the legislature are calling Reynolds to accept 95 million dollars in federal funding she rejected in the spring that could be used to conduct regular Covid testing in Iowa schools. Erin Dahl of Waukee is the mother of two young children who organized a sit-in on the Iowa Capitol lawn last week. Her husband is a public school teacher with a serious heart condition.
Dahl is hoping Iowa’s ban on school mask mandates can be declared a violation of the civil rights of people with disabilities.
