Parent activists in the commonwealth of Virginia praised Gov. Glenn Youngkin for ending a bitter war over school mask mandates after he signed a law on Wednesday requiring schools to allow parents to opt their children out.
The legislative victory for Virginia’s new governor, barely a month into his term, highlighted for conservative parent activists how Youngkin has pushed to fulfill campaign promises on an issue largely credited for helping him win the governor’s mansion last year.
“Gov. Youngkin was elected because of a massive bloc of people who became single-issue voters,” Ian Prior, the executive director of the political action committee Fight for Schools, told the Washington Examiner. “That single issue was their children’s health, well-being, and education.”
YOUNGKIN SIGNS BILL CODIFYING SCHOOL MASK OPT-OUT, LIKELY ENDING STATE’S MASK WAR
On Wednesday, Youngkin signed into law a bipartisan bill that codified an executive order he had issued on his first day in office allowing parents to opt their children out of school mask mandates.
Prior praised Youngkin for “diligently working to fulfill his campaign promises” and said that the “Democratic Party apparatus in Virginia has refused to engage in self-reflection and continues to double down.”
“The result is that these parents remain engaged even after the election, and their continued work at the local level has allowed Youngkin to keep compiling wins while the school systems remained married to the pre-November 2021 political landscape,” he said.
The mask opt-out was introduced by Democratic state Sen. Chap Petersen and earned the support of several other Democrats in the chamber, who joined with Republicans to pass it.
Carrie Lukas, a parent from the northern Virginia county of Fairfax, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that Petersen’s support for the bill was a “watershed moment” and “really turned the tide” on school mask mandates in the state.
“Gov. Youngkin, you know, came out and so quickly prioritized freeing children in Virginia from these masking requirements,” Lukas said. “And I think it was kind of a wonderful thing that we had this [bill from] Chap Petersen. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”
Lukas, who works at the conservative Independent Women’s Network, had attempted to send her elementary school-age children unmasked to school in Fairfax County following the enactment of Youngkin’s executive order. But school officials informed her that her children would be barred from attending school if they did not wear masks.
The district had refused to lift their mandate after Youngkin issued the executive order, but Lukas is now “relieved that help is on the way” in the form of a more enforceable law, even as she harbors some lingering concerns.
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“I remain concerned about how willing our school board will be to implement this new law and how they’re going to treat kids who just decided to use the option of unmasking,” she said. “I’m cautiously optimistic. It’s a step in the right direction, but I’m still wary of how this is going to play out in the weeks and months ahead.”
