Local control over schools鈥攁 concept that many say they believe in, yet don鈥檛 always support in practice鈥攊s under intense pressure this year as school-level and state leaders struggle over how to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even as the Delta variant of the coronavirus leaves schools scrambling at the start of a new year, districts in several states are defying what they see as misguided or ill-founded state laws or orders regarding mask mandates.

Tension between local and state leaders about schools is far from new. But in recent times, it has often involved issues like school accountability and turnaround strategies for low-performing schools. Today鈥檚 disputes are testing the wisdom and fragility of community autonomy over schools in the face of unprecedented and high-stakes questions about students鈥� health, well-being, and academic progress.

Such disputes threaten to fray official and personal relationships at an especially fraught time for schools and families. They could also foreshadow further strife over issues like vaccinations.

鈥淭he back-to-school narrative has a much more heavy-handed feel from federal and state players, who typically don鈥檛 get involved鈥� in questions involving day-to-day school operations, said Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate executive director of AASA, the School Administrators Association. (In an unusual move, for example, U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., appeared before a county school board in North Carolina in early August and for requiring masks in schools.)

The extent to which state officials truly promote local control by empowering parents over districts鈥攐r vice versa鈥攁nd whether some parents鈥� views are being favored over others are also factors in the current circumstances.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 the problem with defining local control. Is that 鈥榣ocal鈥� or not?鈥� said Paul Hill, the founder of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, a research center at the University of Washington, Bothell. 鈥淭hat turns out to be extremely complicated ... with as many social divisions as we have now.鈥�

Prolonged stress over schools is fueling tension within states

The most prominent fights right now on this front involve the power of school districts to mandate that students and staff wear masks while on school property.

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, both Republicans, recently have sought to prohibit school districts from universally mandating masks; in Florida鈥檚 case, districts can adopt such mandates but parents can opt their children out, according to DeSantis鈥� executive order. But the districts in Miami-Dade and Leon counties in Florida, and in Texas including those for Austin and Dallas, have defied state orders and said they will require masks in all cases anyway, as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have risen in those states.

Elsewhere, South Carolina lawmakers have prohibited districts from requiring students and teachers to wear masks, a position that Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, indicated he supports.

Not all of the disagreements involve the same actors in the same role. While in Florida and Texas the governors and district leaders have squared off, in Arkansas, GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, has tried but so far failed to convince lawmakers to reverse a ban he previously signed on district masking mandates. And South Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican, vetoed a bill prohibiting state officials from mandating masks, only for the legislature to .

Eight states have enacted some sort of prohibition or limitation on local school mask mandates, according to .

In several cases the mask disputes pitting districts against states involve big school systems. Miami-Dade County, which has 334,000 students, is one of the 10 largest districts in the nation.

But legal battles are already under way in Arkansas and , where judges so far have shown a willingness to give districts the power to mandate masks, at least temporarily.

Meanwhile, all 11 states requiring masks in schools have Democratic governors. Requiring districts to have students and school staff wear masks haven鈥檛 been greeted with wild and joyous celebrations. There have been in response to these mandates. But if nothing else, these states can point to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance recommending this step for political cover.

State mandates requiring masks in schools haven鈥檛 been met with universal acclaim from districts. After Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, ordered all schools to require face masks in buildings, one superintendent in the state who was overriding local officials鈥� authority and opinions.

Hints of tension between districts and states have also arisen on a separate鈥攁nd also politically volatile鈥攊ssue in Oklahoma, one of 11 states have adopted laws or other measures this year targeting how teachers address racism or 鈥渄ivisive concepts鈥� in American history. A handful of districts there already have said they don鈥檛 plan on changing how they teach students about racism, even if it risks violating a new law limiting how they approach the topic.

It remains to be seen if or to what extent districts elsewhere follow suit in the wake of criticism from educators about how these statutes could affect their instruction and as states outline how investigations of potential violations of these laws, as well as penalties, will work.

In the current climate, some state leaders who鈥檝e previously backed local control over schools are clearly running in the opposite direction, said Jon Valant, the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy at the Brookings Institution. To a large extent, local control over schools is a matter of tradition that鈥檚 not immune from disruption, he noted.

鈥淲hatever the motivation is to keep up local control, it鈥檚 pretty flimsy,鈥� he said. 鈥淢ost politicians do have ideas about how principled government works. That being said, for a whole lot of them, those principles sit a few steps below reelection when it comes to these day-to-day priorities.鈥�

Not every state grappling with issues like mask mandates is making headlines

There are on the issue of masking children in schools.

Polling by Gallup from late July has indicated that a majority of parents of students and of adults in general for unvaccinated teachers and school staff. The idea is somewhat less popular for unvaccinated students, although a majority of both groups still support mask requirements. (Gallup鈥檚 polling did not ask about mask mandates for vaccinated individuals and did not differentiate results from state to state.)

But there鈥檚 plenty of division. Some parents have indicated that mask requirements amount to an unwarranted infringement on the rights of their children. Yet others believe that if schools want to reopen and stay open safely, masking is crucial, given that children younger than 12 aren鈥檛 yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccines.

Such differences can feed broader dissatisfaction with schools after nearly 18 months of the pandemic, Valant noted.

The growth of school choice during the pandemic also has the potential to alter the traditional balance of power between districts and states in the current circumstances. In early August, the Florida board of education permitted families who don鈥檛 want their children to wear masks in schools to use a tax-credit scholarship program .

The political ping-pong has escalated recently.

On Aug. 10, in response to a threat from DeSantis to withhold pay from school leaders who impose mask mandates in defiance of his order, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the Biden administration was exploring how it might direct unspent COVID-19 relief funds to districts .

Valant cautioned that simply waving state officials鈥� interest in and actions over local schools won鈥檛 work. At the most basic level, have language in their constitutions requiring the creation of a public education system, according to an Education Commission of the States analysis. And the influence of governors and state legislatures over hot-button policy issues like testing and funding has been accepted, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, by local leaders for some time.

In the past, state actors have often sought to empower local leaders by streamlining requirements and easing their regulatory burden, Hill noted. But in his view, governors like DeSantis would at least be more consistent if they allowed districts to enact mask mandates without parental opt-outs, while still empowering parents to move their children to different schools if they disliked such rules. Instead, he said, such officials appear to have a conflict of interest as they promote their own political status.

The extreme political pressures on local K-12 officials, Hill added, create 鈥渁 disastrous situation for everyone鈥� involved.

Governors and legislators aren鈥檛 the only representatives of state governments. Ellerson Ng, for example, said she wished the recommendations from state health departments that have consulted with local school districts carried more force in more states.

South Carolina鈥檚 health and education departments, for example, have jointly said they advise all students to wear masks in schools.

鈥淚f we could have depoliticized guidance around masking and COVID, that would be great. But that ship has sailed,鈥� Ellerson Ng said.

And she blamed the political climate for fueling simultaneous outrage over things like critical race theory and masks鈥攖wo issues that aren鈥檛 related as far as educators are concerned.

Valant, however, also stressed that in many places state and local officials have grappled with the same issues and managed to build some kind of workable consensus relatively quietly, Valant said.

鈥淭hey aren鈥檛 going to make news because you don鈥檛 have people like Governor DeSantis who are hurrying to television cameras to talk about this stuff,鈥� Valant said.