“The governor’s decision today to end her indoor mask mandate is welcome news and long overdue but does not go nearly far enough. Continuing to mask our school children makes little-to-no sense as our businesses are allowed to unmask. Just as our neighboring states (PA, NJ, CT, MA & DE) have announced they are ending the mask mandate on kids in their schools, we, too, should be eliminating the mask mandate on our kids in New York schools.

“Gov. Hochul, just like her predecessor, has continued a pattern of failing to provide parents, local governments and school officials with important metrics and guidance justifying her mandates. We cannot continue this executive overreach of power and arbitrary day-by-day policy making from the executive mansion. The executive emergency powers ended. We are no longer in a state of emergency, but this administration continues to govern like we are.

“It is time to return to normalcy for our children and local communities. It is time to restore local control and decision making. It is time to return to responsible governing by working with the Legislature on important issues instead of using an improper overreach of executive power, mandates and regulations as the state Supreme Court has clearly ruled.”