The Maryland legislative committee on Friday approved the State Board of Education’s decision to allow all 24 local school districts to decide whether to require face coverings in schools. The decision, effective immediately, ends an emergency order mandating the masking in schools that had been in effect since the beginning of the school year. Both Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and the state superintendent of schools, Mohammed Choudhury, had lobbied for the decision, which came on the same day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new masking guidance that allows many more areas of the country to ease pandemic restrictions. The Maryland State Education Association, the union that represents 76,000 teachers and other support staff, had urged caution, asking for the mask mandate to remain in place longer.