Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said today there will be no facemask mandates for students in his state, raising serious political and health questions for many families just a few thousand feet away on the other side of the Delaware River.
Governor Wolf said it’s not his position to mandate face masks for students and will continue to leave that decision up to local officials. Wolf added that the Pennsylvania Department of Education will eventually issue guidance for the local school districts, but it is not their place to mandate face masks statewide.
“I think the school districts in Pennsylvania have to decide what they want to do. I think the CDC guidelines say ‘strongly recommend’ that schools do that. They’re not mandating it, and neither am I,” Governor Wolf said.
The decision raises questions about the politics and science behind New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy’s decision to require all K-12 students there to wear face masks in September, regardless of their vaccination status.
In reality, students in portions of Pennsylvania along the western banks of the Delaware River could attend class without facemasks, while just a few thousand feet away on the east bank of the river,