ELECTION 2020
Analysis: Where We Stand, By Brenda Ortega MEA Voice Editor
local health departments began issuing orders under their own separate authorities.
MEA members’ hard work to elect friends of public education up and down the November 3 General Election ballot paid off in many ways, but one of the most significant and least ballyhooed wins came in the state Supreme Court race.
However, the high court’s decision sowed confusion and stirred backlash by mask opponents, and many observers have said the change in authorizing of public health rules and requirements deepened partisan divides over common-sense tools for slowing the spread of the virus.
With much of the post-election news focused on President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede in his decisive loss to former Vice President Joe Biden, wins by two MEA-recommended Supreme Court candidates drew little media attention. The re-election of Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack and the first-time election of Grand Rapidsarea employment law attorney Elizabeth Welch swung control of the court for the first time in a decade.
As of press time for this issue, the Legislature had done little to bridge the divide or step into the breach in public opinion regarding masking and social distancing rules.
The current-events context is important to note.
The failure of lawmakers to act continued even as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in Michigan began a precipitous rise in early to mid-November, as health officials had long warned could happen with the arrival of colder weather if public health measures were not followed.
One month before the election, a 4-3 conservative majority on the state’s highest court ruled in favor of Republican lawmakers who sought to strip Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of emergency powers to issue orders related to the coronavirus crisis.
In late October, MEA President Paula Herbart issued a statement and appeared in newspaper, radio and television interviews on the subject—joining a chorus of education, health, and business leaders calling for state lawmakers to take action.
The narrow ruling struck down Whitmer’s executive orders protecting public health amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including requirements for mask-wearing in public places. Within a week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and
“It is now a matter of life and death for the leaders of this state to work together to promote the use of masks and physical distancing, which we know reduce exposure and save thousands of lives,” Herbart said.
16 DEC 2020—JAN 2021
Sen. Dayna Polehanki called out GOP leaders in the Legislature for failing to act in the COVID-19 crisis after they sued to take away powers from the governor.
When the leadership of the House and Senate left for an extended hunting break on Nov. 12 without acting on a mask bill, Sen. Dayna Polehanki, (D-Livonia)—an English teacher and MEA member who first won her seat in 2018—called them out in a pointed floor speech. “There appears to be no effort by the majority party to consider mask legislation or any other COVID legislation, for that matter,” Polehanki said. “To my colleagues across the aisle, you wanted this responsibility,
