Iowa Democrats are calling on Republican Governor Kim Reynolds to allow schools to follow CDC guidelines and require students and teachers to wear masks. Reynolds signed a new law in May that prohibits mask mandates in schools.
House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights cautions against districts defying that law. She pointed to bills in the last legislative session that targeted Des Moines schools for violating state guidelines.
We should not have to be asking school boards to consider breaking the law in order keep families safe. School boards should be able to make those decisions themselves.
The Biden administration wrote to Reynolds yesterday saying Iowa’s mandate ban could violate a law that gives emergency pandemic funding to schools.
Reynolds was asked today why she considers masks to be a “disservice” to students.
“It’s about their social and emotional wellbeing. I can’t—listen come walk the fairgrounds with me for just a day. And I want you to see the number of moms and dads and teachers and children—they literally have tears in their eyes—tears—when they come up to me and say, ‘thank you, thank you for getting my kids back in school, thank you for not masking them up.’ We don’t know what their health conditions are.”
The CDC is recommending that everyone in schools wear a mask this fall. Reynolds says she’s doing her job and Biden should do his, and should focus instead on Afghanistan and the southern border.
Woodbury County is taking steps to demolish the former Prairie Hills jail.
This week, board of supervisors allowed the building services director to initial the bidding process for the demolition of the more than century-old facility.
The main Prairie Hills building was initially a so-called county home, an institutional place for paupers and others.
