Gov. Gavin Newsom does seem ready to eliminate mask requirements in school. It would just be like his counterparts in three other states did this week. But, in fact, Newsom can’t go where teachers’ unions aren’t ready, as was the case with school reopening a year ago.

Gavin Newsom is Between a Rock and Hard Place With Regard to the Teacher’s Union

Also, blue states are ditching their school mask mandates. Yet, California is stuck as the powerful teacher’s unions do push back.

The last stand for the mask wars in California is going to be the classroom. Moreover, schools did stay closed longer here than anywhere else in the country as teachers’ unions have made access to the vaccines a condition of their return. Teachers have demanded there be better masks and more testing to then guard against the Omicron variant.

“Also, they just ask for a little more time, and I think that is responsible. I do respect that,” the governor did say of the teachers’ unions at a news conference on Wednesday. “Thus, we are also on a date with destiny. Moreover, we do recognize that we want to turn the page on the status quo.”

However, Newsom is not the only one that still requires masks in schools. Also, the governor of an East Coast city Kathy Hochul is maintaining a similar mandate. Also another Midwest governor J.B. Pritzker, though, those states are among a plummeting number.

Internal Struggle for Democrats

The Democrats never want to face an internal struggle that is caught between the evidence that high-quality masks do reduce transmission, also parental concerns in which children have in fact lost a sense of normalcy, and COVID-19 pandemic fatigue among all that are involved. In fact, President Joe Biden is still trying to figure out the next steps as his top health advisers are still, in fact, urging schools to maintain mask requirements while the Democratic governors are really abandoning that approach.