Gov. Asa Hutchinson gives his State of the State address to the Arkansas General Assembly on Jan. 12.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson has called members of the 93rd General Assembly into a special session to begin at 10 a.m. Wednesday, aiming to give public school boards the power to decide whether to require masks.
The Republican governor said Tuesday he’ll seek an exception to Act 1002, which prohibits state and local governments from imposing mask mandates. He said he wants to give local schools “flexibility to protect those school children who are 11 and younger and not eligible” for a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Under CDC guidelines, students 11 and younger cannot receive the COVID vaccine, and without it, they are at a greater risk of contracting the virus, particularly the Delta variant,” the governor said in a statement. “COVID-19 impact is escalating among children, particularly those 12 and older, as we have seen in the increased number and severity of COVID-19 cases at Arkansas Children’s during July.”
Hutchinson said he will ask legislators to grant each school board the authority to decide whether to require students younger than 12 to wear a mask.
During a Tuesday press briefing, the governor acknowledged that getting the law changed will be an uphill battle and “may or may not” happen. But he advocated for giving school districts more flexibility.
“Local school districts are all different across the state, and they have different opinions on this, and they reflect different wishes of parents and their constituents,” Hutchinson said. “Local school districts should make the call, and they should have more options to make sure that their school is a safe environment during a very challenging time for education.”
Hutchinson signed the bill into law in April. He said he signed it because cases were at a low point, the Legislature would have overridden a veto and he’d already ended the statewide mask mandate.
“Everything has changed now and yes, in hindsight, I wish that had not become law,” the governor said. “But it is the law, and the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say it has an unconstitutional foundation.”
Two Arkansas parents this week sued the state seeking to overturn Act 1002. The parents asked a Pulaski County judge in a filing dated Monday to issue a temporary order blocking the state from enforcing the law, calling it unconstitutional.
Hutchinson had not read a lawsuit but that he prefers legislative action to action from the courts.
Dr. José Romero, chief medical officer at the Arkansas Department of Health, said that as of Aug. 1 people younger than 18 accounted for 19% of all active cases in the state; children younger than 12 made up half that group.
Between April and July, Romero said, COVID cases in children increased by 517% and cases of children younger than 12 increased by 690%. COVID-19 hospitalizations for Arkansans younger than 18 rose by 270%, he said.
Johnny Key, state secretary of education, said schools are prepared to transition to digital learning if caseloads require it.
“The one tool we have this year that we didn’t have last year is the vaccine,” Key said. “And we certainly do encourage our districts to think about how they can increase those numbers in ages 12 and up.”
Unemployment Benefits
The governor also said Tuesday that he will ask legislators to affirm the decision of the director of Workforce Services to terminate Arkansas’ participation in extraordinary federal unemployment benefit and relief programs related to COVID-19.
“It is more important that we reduce the number of unemployed and put more people to work than it is for the state to accept any federal relief programs related to unemployment,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “I will ask legislators to affirm that the director of Workforce Services may exercise discretion in her decisions to participate in or to cease participation in any voluntary, optional, special or emergency program that the federal government offers.”
Last week, Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herbert Wright ordered Arkansas to resume its participation in the federal program, which Hutchinson ordered the state to exit at the end of June, several months early.
“That was paying them $300 a week to stay out of the workforce,” Hutchinson said during the briefing. “This made no sense, and we ended it.” He added that 160,000 jobs had been filled in Arkansas since the state opted out.
In issuing the preliminary injunction, Wright said state law indicated that ending the payments was a decision for the Legislature, not Hutchinson, to make. He ordered the state to provide written proof if the federal government won’t allow the payments to resume.
The governor was asked whether he would encourage employers to mandate vaccinations following plans by Tyson Foods Inc. of Springdale, announced Tuesday, to require all its U.S. workers to be vaccinated by Nov. 1.
Hutchinson said he supports businesses making their own decisions.
“I just want to recognize how much the employers are doing to increase vaccinations, even voluntarily, through incentives, through paid time off,” he said. “I really think they’re stepping up to the plate for us.”
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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