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Jeremy R. Fischer is a member of the Yarmouth School Committee. The views expressed are solely his own.
I’ve been working on public education issues in Maine for two decades. I represented Presque Isle for three terms in the Legislature, where I helped re-write the state’s school funding model as a Democratic member of the Education Committee. I now serve on the Yarmouth School Committee — a position that I ran for with the goal of starting a universal public prekindergarten program in our district. Ironically, it’s with that interest and experience that I now often find myself debating contentious issues of public health rather than public education.
We’re holding a special meeting in our district on Feb. 28 to vote on whether to end our school mask mandate. The mandate has existed since the fall of 2020 when we returned to in-person learning. When the roll is called, I’ll be voting to end the mandate. Let me explain why.
At bottom, the decision about masking in schools all comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. Unlike many who favor ending school mask mandates, I’m willing to stipulate that there’s a public health benefit to masks. Research shows that they do, in fact, have an impact on limiting the spread of COVID-19. There’s a legitimate debate about the effectiveness of each type of mask, both on the wearer and those around them. There’s also a real debate about how much benefit masks provide to kids, rather than to the broader community. While kids clearly get infected with COVID-19, we have two years of data demonstrating that the only age group at less risk for serious outcomes than kids are vaccinated kids.
Unlike many who want to retain school mask mandates, I can’t ignore that masking also comes with clear costs to kids. As the parent of three young boys — two of whom are in elementary school — I see those costs in my own kids and their friends. Masks may inhibit speech development and may affect social, emotional and mental health. Notably, in our school budget, we’re spending more than $150,000 next year to remediate these issues by adding an extra speech therapist, psychologist and social worker.
We should all be able to agree that there are costs and benefits to school mask mandates. But this misses the fundamental question — who should get to weigh these costs and benefits and make the ultimate decision for each student? Should it be the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention or Department of Education? Should it be elected or unelected school leaders at the local level? Or should it be parents?
For me, I trust parents to make this decision for their kids. They know their kids best. They know their family situation best. Parents make hundreds of similar cost-benefit decisions every day that involve inherent risk assessment. What do your kids eat or drink? Can they ride their bike to school today? Are they allowed to play contact sports? Can they go on a sleepover or to a pool party? Parents weigh the costs and benefits to make good decisions for their kids. All day, every day. From dawn to dusk.
Parents are the real experts about their kids. That’s why I’ll be voting to end my district’s school mask mandate. By ending the mandate, we won’t be prohibiting masks in schools, we’ll just be creating parental choice based on personal risk assessment. Some parents may choose to send their kids to school without any mask, especially in light of our district’s very high student and staff vaccination rate. Other parents may choose to send their children in high quality KN95 masks, which the district should provide free of charge. Recent studies show such masks provide the wearer with strong protection even if others around them choose not to mask.
I’m comfortable placing my trust in the real experts to weigh the costs and benefits, and then make the best decision for their kids and their families.