Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican in a deep-blue state who has so far resisted issuing a mask mandate or vaccination requirement for schools, came under pressure this week for tougher rules from the state’s largest teachers’ union.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association board of directors voted 46 to 4 on Tuesday to pass a vaccine requirement for all eligible students and staff, after a unanimous vote on Aug. 1 in favor of a mask mandate. Union president Merrie Najimy noted that Governor Baker has opposed taking these steps.
“Educators and our unions are doing everything they can to ensure that public schools and colleges can open safely,” she said. “We remain alarmed by the failure of the state’s political leaders to follow suit.”
She added, “it’s as if Governor Baker” and other state education officials “have learned nothing for the past year and a half.”
Governor Baker faces thumping pressure on masking requirements; some of his fellow Republican governors in conservative states like Texas, Florida and Arizona have put up much stronger resistance by enacting bans on mask and vaccine mandates.
Polls suggest strong support for a school mask mandate in the state, with 81 percent of Massachusetts voters in favor of the idea, and only 12 percent opposing it, according to a survey released Thursday by The MassINC Polling Group.
Governor Baker, a Republican, has said he prefers to leave concealment decisions to local officials, who “know these communities best.”
“Different communities are in different places,” he told WGBH, a radio station. “You have a number of communities in Massachusetts where 85 to 95 percent of all children in middle and high school are vaccinated. You have many other districts in Massachusetts where the numbers are much, much smaller.”
However, on Thursday afternoon, Governor Baker announced a strict vaccine mandate for 42,000 state government employees, requiring them to show proof of vaccination by mid-October.
