LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has canceled his Aug. 10 executive order that requires students to wear masks in schools, but he hinted in a television interview that he is considering a statewide mask mandate with the legislature’s approval.
Beshear’s action on his school mask mandate came Monday on the heels of Saturday’s Kentucky Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for the Republican-led state legislature with new laws approved this year to limit the Democratic governor’s powers to deal with emergencies like the coronavirus pandemic.
Beshear said at his late Monday afternoon news conference that he considers valid a state Board of Education emergency regulation on Aug. 12 requiring a mask mandate for students for most of this school year remains in effect as well as the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ emergency regulation related to masks in child care settings.
He said he rescinded his Aug. 10 mandate because of the Supreme Court decision.
He also said he has not made a specific request to legislators on a statewide mask mandate, adding that he thinks a special legislative session is likely to put in place virus-fighting laws and be sure the statewide emergency remains in effect.
If it were his decision to implement a statewide mask mandate, Beshear said, he would look at how hospitals are faring over the next two weeks. If the situation was dire, he would want to do it. But he quickly acknowledged that with the high court decision, he now needs to get legislative approval.
A legislative panel recently found the Department of Education and Cabinet for Health and Family Service regulations deficient, but Beshear overrode that decision. One of the new laws might limit those emergency regulations to 30 days.
The Kentucky Department of Education said in a statement Saturday that the court decision has no bearing on the Kentucky Board of Education’s emergency regulation requiring masks in public schools.
On Monday, it said in a statement that the “emergency regulation stands on its own authority, so the regulation is still in effect and in place.”
The Kentucky School Boards Association said in a statement Saturday that it was reviewing the Supreme Court decision and urged “all education stakeholders” to take a slow approach in responding.
On Aug. 10, Beshear issued an executive order requiring almost all teachers, staff and students in K-12 schools, child care and pre-kindergarten programs across Kentucky to wear a mask indoors. It was to apply for 30 days and leave open the indefinite possibility for renewal. A U.S. district judge’s ruling last Thursday temporarily blocked that order in at least one school district. Beshear has asked that it be dissolved. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Tuesday.
Beshear filed Monday morning with Secretary of State Michael Adams’ office an order to rescind his Aug. 10 mask order.
He said this order would take effect immediately.
In an interview early Monday with Bill Bryant of Lexington’s WKYT-TV, Beshear said he had “good conversations” with legislative leaders over the weekend and they were planning to meet Monday.
He said he hopes the legislature “will have the courage to do the hard thing.” He said as “our hospitals are filling up, as we are running out of ICU beds, we are going to have to strongly consider a statewide mask mandate.”
The governor said it was too early to say whether a special legislative session will be needed to address actions to combat the virus.
In a Monday afternoon telephone news conference, Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, said legislative leaders’ discussions with Beshear’s office have been preliminary but “not much.”
He said there has been no discussion of a statewide mask mandate but that “a blanket mask mandate” might be difficult to win legislative approval, even with Democrats. He said it might be easier to approve if it were limited, such as being applied to the health industry.
Stivers said he could not see Beshear’s calling a special session this week to come up with ways to combat the virus. He noted that the governor has 20 days to ask the Supreme Court for a rehearing but he doubted that will occur.
He noted that lawmakers have been formulating for weeks actions they think might be effective in dealing with the virus. He declined to identify them.
On the Department of Education’s mask regulation, Stivers said the state board may not have promulgated its regulation within existing law approved this year.
“Which I think would lead one to challenge that if they wish,” he said without elaboration.
Asked about the Cabinet for Health and Family Services’ mask regulation for child care settings, Stivers said that mandate was based on the governor’s executive order and “that would not be in existence if the executive branch doesn’t file a motion for reconsideration (of the Supreme Court decision.)“
The emphasis, said Stivers, is that “we have a problem.” He said people should take the vaccine because the virus is raging across the state.
Louisville political consultant Danny Briscoe said Kentuckians want Beshear and state lawmakers to work together on COVID-19.
Briscoe said he “agrees 100 percent” with Supreme Court Justice Lisabeth T. Hughes’ comment that “As a justice, and more pertinently as a lifelong Kentuckian, I implore all parties to this matter to lay down their swords and work together cooperatively to finish this immensely important task for the benefit of the people they serve.”
Asked if that is possible, Briscoe said the governor and legislators have to negotiate “without being shrill at each other. Both sides will be better off if they work together.”
Meanwhile, Covington attorney Brandon Voelker said a U.S. District Court hearing scheduled for Tuesday on Beshear’s school mask mandate has been canceled because of Beshear’s decision to rescind his order.
U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman of Covington last week issued a temporary restraining order against Beshear’s mandate in a legal case involving about 20 families in a Campbell County Catholic school.
Voelker said the school — St. Joseph — will continue with its policy of making masks optional.
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