Ohio Senate Bill 209 is another in a long string of bizarre attempts by state lawmakers to insert control at the local level. SB209 would prohibit schools from requiring anyone to wear a mask in a public education setting. It would also stop the state school board, the Ohio Department of Education, as well as individual school districts’ boards of education, from requiring masks in public education settings.

SB 209 was introduced by state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Powell, who was also part of a recent law that banned public schools from issuing vaccine mandates.

One wonders what changed in Brenner’s philosophy. Just a year ago, he was staunchly on the other side of the issue when it came to state lawmakers interfering with the way elected school districts served their communities.

At the time, Brenner said the decision on whether to open schools for in-person learning should be made by local government, not the state.

“Why would you not trust your local school boards and superintendents who know their school districts the best,” he said. ” … taking information from state and local health departments to be able to determine whether or not their local school districts should be open?”

Precisely. Strategies for combating the spread of COVID-19 are not one-size-fits-all, and are best left to those living in our communities, rather than being dictated from Columbus.