The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education will meet today in Baton Rouge to consider giving mask-wearing rules to the individual school districts.
Members anticipate a heated debate over government power and public health amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Louisiana’s top school board can side with Gov. John Bel Edwards or exempt schools from the state’s indoor mask mandate.
The St Tammany Parish School Board has already made its opinion clear. In an Aug. 13 letter, members of that board asked BESE to consider deregulating mask rules.
BESE’s 11-member roster includes six Republicans and five Democrats, three of whom are Edwards appointees.
Whatever BESE decides, school board members say the St. Tammany Parish School Board will comply with the vote.
