NW Illinois News

Veteran state Rep. Andrew Chesney (R-Freeport) has filed legislation he hopes will undo Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s latest mask mandate and restore “local control” to lawmakers in Springfield.

“People throughout Illinois and frankly throughout this country are getting so tired of edicts from politicians about how to live their lives,” Chesney posted on Facebook. “In the face of this terribly patronizing treatment from politicians, it is well past time we restore local control. I have faith that the health department officials in our counties, the teachers in our classrooms and government closest to the people are perfectly capable of making correct decisions for the residents they have been duly elected to represent. But to be told how to run our lives through edicts from Springfield or Washington is simply not acceptable.”  

House Bill 4131 seeks to establish that only a school board or governing board at a public or nonpublic school has the power to determine, in consultation with the local health department, if and when to implement mask-wearing mandates for school staff, students, and visitors after the governor has declared a disaster due to a public health emergency related to COVID-19.

“I don’t believe that my local administrators are less qualified to make decisions about their students and their classrooms than the Chicago-based Superintendent of Schools for Illinois,” Chesney wrote  in a press release. “I do not believe that IDPH knows more about proper mitigation protocols for local locations than the local health administrators who work and live here. We pay these people to apply their hard-earned first-hand knowledge to benefit our community and not to simply follow orders from bureaucrats outside our communities.”

Chesney said he is hoping the bill will be taken under consideration later this month when the General Assembly is slated to reconvene in Springfield to address the issue of recently redrawn legislative maps.

As part of the plan, Chesney called on House Speaker Chris Welch, “to restore proper checks and balances” in government across the state.