Phil Murphy and the NJEA have worked hand-in-hand on pandemic policy over the last two years, Save Jerseyans, so it’s no surprise that New Jersey’s largest teachers’ union is backing up Phil Murphy’s decision to end the K-12 mask mandate in March.
There is, however, a caveat.
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“It shouldn’t be a political decision to take a mask off, and it certainly shouldn’t be a political decision to put them back on,” NJEA President Sean Spiller told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Monday:
.@SpillerForNJEA on three states planning to lift school mask mandates: "It shouldn't be a political decision to take a mask off, and it certainly shouldn't be a political decision to put them back on." #TheReidOut #reiders pic.twitter.com/sCORSOfD7H
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) February 8, 2022
The NJEA has never provided a scientific explanation for masking. Its official statement concerning this week’s big news doesn’t address specific science or data metrics. Unsurprisingly, Phil Murphy couldn’t answer Jake Tapper on Monday when asked for the specific data point or points that led him to make the mask-off-in-March decision.
Spiller is the one making political decisions. Murphy is, too. That’s all they’ve been doing for two years.
If masks return? There will be a political reason, and your kids will once again be the unwilling political pawns in whatever high-level power politics game they’re playing.
