Back to School Amid the Delta Variant

<p>To ensure students’ safe return to in-person learning amid a surge in the Delta variant of the coronavirus, some school districts plan to institute mask mandates.</p><p>Yet that move isn’t necessarily straightforward — several of the country’s hardest-hit states have banned such mandates.</p><p>We look at how this conflict is playing out in Arkansas. </p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/richard-fausset?smid=pc-thedaily">Richard Fausset</a>, a correspondent covering the American South for The New York Times. </p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/signup/NTTD?smid=pc-thedaily">Sign up here</a> to get The Daily in your inbox each morning. And for an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. </p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas signed a law banning mask mandates early this year. Now, he wants to unravel it, reflecting a dilemma for Republican governors across the South,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/us/covid-arkansas-mask-mandate.html?smid=pc-thedaily"> where the health crisis has deepened</a>.</li><li>School officials in Florida and Arizona say they<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/us/schools-mask-mandates-Arizona-Florida.html?smid=pc-thedaily"> intend to require students and teachers to wear masks in school</a>, despite statewide bans on such policies.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p>