The General Assembly of South Carolina inserted a proviso in the last budget:

1.108. (SDE: Mask Mandate Prohibition)  No school district, or any of its schools, may use any funds appropriated or authorized pursuant to this act to require that its students and/or employees wear a facemask at any of its education facilities. This prohibition extends to the announcement or enforcement of any such policy.

Students under 12 years old are not eligible to be vaccinated.  Children like mine that are immunocompromised are vulnerable if they were to contract covid, particularly the delta variant.  We are asking that they remove this proviso allowing schools to require mask if the infection rate in their community warrants doing so.  This is a reasonable provision that lets the decision be made in the local community and allows school districts to do what is in the best interest of the students without the threat of losing state funding.  For example Greenville County Schools would lose about 200 million dollars if they felt they had to mandate mask with this proviso in place.