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ILLINOIS
TEACHERS UNIONS FIGHT TO KEEP KIDS MASKED
Illinois Policy Institute/
Joe Tabor
A Sangamon County judge temporarily ended
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s school mask mandate, and Pritzker’s appeal of that
ruling lost. Yet the fight showed Illinois teachers unions want kids
masked statewide on Pritzker’s say-so alone.
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 Illinois’ two largest teachers union just made it clear they want one state
politician deciding whether every Illinois school student should be wearing a
mask, regardless of local conditions, parents’ preferences, the harms or the
need.
Both the Illinois Federation of Teachers and the Illinois Education Association
asked to file legal arguments trying to help Gov. J.B. Pritzker persuade an
appellate court to keep Pritzker’s statewide school mask mandate in place. The
effort failed, and the Illinois Fourth Circuit Appellate Court rejected
Pritzker’s appeal late Feb. 17.
The unions’ legal brief was filed Feb. 7 in response to Sangamon County Circuit
Judge Raylene Grischow’s temporary restraining order. Her order voided certain
Illinois Department of Public Health and Illinois State Board of Education
emergency rules and temporarily halted enforcement of Pritzker’s executive
orders mandating masks in schools, weekly testing of unvaccinated school
employees and quarantining of students and teachers who are close contacts of
confirmed or probable COVID-19 cases. The unions’ brief repeatedly referred to
“due process” and “right” with scare quotes, then argued against giving school
mask objectors those same due process rights because they would disrupt pandemic
mitigation measures.
The crux of the teachers unions’ argument was the state has broad police powers
when it comes to matters of public health. Teachers’ rights to work with
COVID-19 mitigation procedures in place and the public health benefits that
derive from those outweigh the other side’s rights to due process under Illinois
statutes, the unions claimed.
While a state has police powers to safeguard public health, those powers do not
let public officials to do whatever they want. Police powers are still limited
by the law.
According to Grischow’s order, Illinois law designates the IDPH the “supreme
authority” in matters of quarantine and isolation, not the governor. She
determined IDPH must follow the required procedures under the Illinois
Department of Public Health Act to comply with due process requirements.
Grishchow noted in her order the plaintiffs were explicitly not seeking to
dismantle statutes related to masking, vaccination, testing or exclusion
policies, but only that they be given their rights of due process as guaranteed
by Illinois law.
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The unions’ brief claimed the judge’s order will
endanger in-person classes and questioned a court’s ability to make
judgments on scientific matters or evaluate policy tradeoffs. They
made that argument just a month after judgments on scientific
matters and policy were forced on Chicago schools by the Chicago
Teachers Union when it walked out on students for five days to get
its preferred mitigations in place. CTU pushed for remote schooling
despite public health authorities affirming the safety of in-person
classes.
Illinois would be one of only 11 states with a statewide school mask
mandate if the teachers unions got their way, according to the New
York Times. But while Pritzker announced Illinois will lift the
general statewide indoor mask mandate Feb. 28, he did not say when
it would be lifted for school children.
Even so, because of Grischow’s order and pending litigation, over
550 Illinois school districts have gone “fully masks optional,”
according to the plaintiffs’ attorney.
The order teachers unions sought to reverse is temporary, and it is
likely Pritzker will elevate his fight to the Illinois Supreme
Court. Even then, the merits of the case have not been addressed,
and litigation can take months and even years. To give parents and
students certainty about restrictions governing their schools, the
state should limit emergency powers through legislation passed by
the Illinois General Assembly.
Several states have been moving to limit executive powers since the
perils of their overuse were shown during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Illinois lawmakers have seen what happens when one person decides
for an entire state, and should act before it happens again.
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