Youngkin has ventured into a legally murky area. Critics believe that he doesn’t have the authority to issue his order because Virginia passed a statute in early 2021 saying that schools should, “to the maximum extent practicable,” adhere to CDC-blessed strategies for controlling spread of the virus. The CDC is still recommending masks. The statute is vague, though, and doesn’t mention masks. Youngkin’s predecessor, Democrat Ralph Northam, felt compelled to issue an executive order specifically mandating masks in K–12 schools.

There’s also the question of whether decisions on masking and other mitigation measures are best left to school districts. Here, it’s worth noting that Youngkin’s order is different from that of his fellow Republican governors in Texas and Florida, who prohibited school districts from adopting mask mandates. Instead, Youngkin is establishing a carveout for parents from mandates, should they choose to take advantage of it.

That said, it’s clearly time for mask mandates to end. The conventional wisdom on masks has gone from “don’t wear them, they are useless” at the beginning of the pandemic, to “you are a terrible person if you don’t wear them” for about a year and a half, to now, “cloth masks don’t really protect anyone.”