What is more likely to give families relief—administrative action or the court system? Missouri’s attorney general has opted for the latter. The attorney general filed a lawsuit in an effort to prevent families from having to send their children back to school in masks. This lawsuit would make it illegal for a school district to have a mask mandate. How likely is that approach to have an effect within the necessary time frame?
A lot of families have found out just this week whether their children will have to wear masks full time when they head back to school. And a lot of families on both sides are very angry. I believe that these families should not be forced to put their children in physically upsetting circumstances—whether that’s mandatory masking or optional masking—and that they need options to move their children to a different educational environment as quickly as possible. The school year is starting or has already started. The court system is slow.
Florida and Arizona have expanded existing scholarship programs to qualify families who have strong preferences on masking policy. Missouri could do the same. We have a new empowerment scholarship account that will become law in days. That program could provide the structure and federal stimulus funds—of which Missouri has received billions for education—could provide the means to put scholarships in the hands of families. Unconventional times call for unconventional solutions.
