 The decision on whether students should wear face masks in class would be taken away from schools, school districts and day care centers under a bill being considered by the Kentucky State Legislature. House Bill 51 would place the decision on whether or not students wear masks in the hands of parents, effectively ending all school mask mandates. It would also forbid any penalties against child care centers for not requiring masks. During a hearing Tuesday before the House Education Committee, bill sponsor Representative Lynn Beckler of Marion explained his rationale. Parents should be able to make their own decision regarding masks through high school. College students can vote for president, shouldn't they also be allowed to make their own masking decision? But Rob Weber with the Kentucky Academy of Science says ending the ability of school districts to require masks would take away one of the tools that allows kids to learn in classrooms instead of on computers. Recent data in Kentucky has shown that people within schools daily are more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 than the general public. House Bill 51 would remove the ability of colleges and schools to be guided by science when decisions are made on masking policies. Prohibiting the ability to require masks would remove one of the layered preventive strategies that helps keep kids in school and learning. And we're also concerned about the possibility of even more educators leaving the profession. At Pikeville Medical Center, we believe that together we can make a difference in the fight against cancer. We are proud to have patients who have experienced successful outcomes over many years. As always, we believe in the power of faith. Pikeville Medical Center, where cancer can be defeated. And Representative Jeffrey Donahue of Fairdale questioned Beckler of the bill seemingly abandoning one of the buzzwords of last year's General Assembly, local control. You know, we talked about last session here about how important it was for local control and how we really pushed for that as a legislative body. And I don't understand why we're trying to take away that opportunity to have local control. With regard to local control, I don't know of anything that is more local than a parent making the decision whether or not their child should have to wear a mask. The bill was passed out of committee by a vote of 11-7. Although several of today's yes votes came from lawmakers who say they want to hear more debate on the subject and are reserving the right to vote no later. The bill now heads to the full house for consideration. If it passes in the house, it would still need to be considered by the Senate.