Prairie State Wire

Nearly 50 public school districts have been placed on probation by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) for defiance of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s recently reissued mask mandate, according to an LGIS News Service tally. 

Of the 47 districts facing discipline, 19 have changed course and indicated that they will impose a mandatory mask mandate. State officials have threatened to cut off state funding to districts that refuse to follow the mandate. Those funds represent on average 42% of total funding going to the affected districts.

Pritzker initially issued the executive order outlining the school safety measures on Aug. 4, indicating that they reflect Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance that calls on students, teachers and staff to wear masks indoors to protect against the COVID-19 Delta variant.

The governor later issued a general indoor mask mandate for those 2 and over.

"Illinois will join several other states that have reinstituted statewide indoor mask requirements, regardless of vaccination status, effective on Monday (Aug. 30)," Pritzker said. "Masks work. Period."

The mandate comes even as several studies have raised concerns about the effectiveness of face coverings and school closures in fighting the spread of the coronavirus.

A paper published by the Center for Biosecurity Disease, titled “Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza,” contends that “the ordinary surgical mask does little to prevent inhalation of small droplets of influenza virus (because) the pores in the mask become blocked by moisture from breathing, and the airstream simply diverts around the mask.”

The same study also pointed out that when schools closed for a winter holiday during the 1918 influenza pandemic, more new cases developed than when schools were in session. Thus, school closures can do more harm than good, the study suggests.

A University of Illinois at Chicago study found that "cloth masks and face coverings are likely to have limited impact on lowering COVID-19 transmission because they have minimal ability to prevent the emission of small particles ... and offer limited personal protection with respect to small particle inhalation."

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Which School Districts Have Defied Governor’s Mask Mandate?

School District	Enrollment	State Funding	Total Funding	State % of Funding	Reversed Course and Implemented Mask Mandate?	County
Central CUSD 3	781	$3,826,450	$8,556,028	45%	Yes	Adams
Brown County Community Unit School District 1	662	$4,971,390	$8,597,964	58%	Yes	Brown
Martinsville Community Unit School District 3C	378	$2,397,680	$4,481,251	54%	Yes	Clark
North Clay CUSD 25	481	$3,786,657	$6,728,628	56%		Clay
Flora Community Unit School District 35	1,250	$7,965,549	$13,648,794	58%		Clay
Carlyle CUSD 1	942	$3,602,965	$11,116,613	32%		Clinton
Hutsonville Community Unit School District 1	288	$2,099,852	$4,318,229	49%		Crawford
Oblong Community Unit School District 4	517	$2,959,948	$6,323,091	47%		Crawford
Edwards County Community Unit School District 1	824	$4,698,973	$9,101,731	52%		Edwards
Beecher City Community Unit School District 20	287	$933,098	$4,123,108	23%		Effingham
Dieterich Community Unit School District 30	500	$2,536,936	$4,834,617	52%		Effingham
Altamont Community Unit School District 10	601	$3,545,390	$7,638,646	46%	Yes	Effingham
Teutopolis Community Unit School District 50	966	$3,604,350	$9,898,842	36%		Effingham
St Elmo Community Unit School District 202	397	$2,526,590	$4,817,836	52%		Fayette
Ramsey Community Unit School District 204	406	$2,979,534	$4,868,320	61%		Fayette
Brownstown Community Unit School District 201	333	$3,151,193	$4,869,137	65%		Fayette
Vandalia Community Unit School District 203	1,271	$8,211,717	$18,147,897	45%	Yes	Fayette
Ewing Northern CCSD 115	194	$1,012,696	$2,225,168	46%	Yes	Franklin
Benton CCSD 47	1,024	$6,966,400	$11,711,761	59%	Yes	Franklin
Spoon River Valley CUSD 4	284	$1,042,447	$3,126,410	33%	Yes	Fulton, Knox
Hamilton County Community Unit School District 10	1,124	$7,889,307	$14,054,887	56%	Yes	Hamilton
Nauvoo-Colusa Community Unit School District 325	228	$694,631	$3,902,853	18%		Hancock
La Harpe CSD 347	191	$756,640	$3,217,573	24%	Yes	Hancock
Illini West High School Dist 307	288	$1,539,922	$4,777,966	32%		Hancock
Warsaw CUSD 316	368	$2,023,967	$4,948,570	41%		Hancock
West Central CUSD 235	706	$2,775,699	$9,629,047	29%	Yes	Henderson
Field Community Consolidated School District 3	212	$1,462,254	$2,377,736	61%	Yes	Jefferson
Woodlawn Unit School District 209	466	$2,666,675	$5,825,717	46%	Yes	Jefferson
St Anne Community Consolidated School District 256	305	$1,528,283	$3,802,772	40%		Kankakee
Abingdon-Avon CUSD 276	887	$4,296,249	$8,638,724	50%		Knox
Red Hill Community Unit School District 10	886	$5,849,110	$9,544,145	61%	Yes	Lawrence
Cornell Community Consolidated School District 426	95	$297,042	$1,530,591	19%		Livingston
Odell Community Consolidated School District 435	124	$676,833	$2,133,375	32%		Livingston
Flanagan-Cornell Unit 74	296	$1,149,596	$5,313,800	22%		Livingston
Meridian CUSD 15	908	$3,379,549	$9,972,161	34%	Yes	Macon
Patoka CUSD #100	231	$578,937	$3,339,408	17%		Marion
Iuka Community Consolidated School District 7	207	$1,308,242	$2,648,502	49%		Marion
South Central Community Unit School District 401	586	$4,006,010	$8,177,309	49%		Marion
Brimfield Community Unit School District 309	606	$1,598,882	$8,202,560	19%	Yes	Peoria
Red Bud CUSD 132	942	$1,388,479	$13,682,948	10%	Yes	Randolph
Cowden-Herrick Community Unit School District 3A	322	$2,548,326	$4,472,191	57%		Shelby
Shelbyville Community Unit School District 4	1,067	$5,529,451	$12,291,344	45%		Shelby
United CUSD 304	799	$2,462,251	$12,881,689	19%	Yes	Warren
North Wayne Community Unit School District 200	351	$2,197,419	$4,679,692	47%		Wayne
Wayne City Community School District	483	$2,941,568	$6,266,752	47%		Wayne
Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Community Unit School District 3	664	$4,251,603	$7,166,181	59%		White
Durand CUSD 322	541	$1,531,479	$7,399,149	21%	Yes	Winnebago

Source: Illinois State Board of Education