By The opinion
Apr 17, 2024, 02:01 AM EDT
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new law into law on Tuesday that limits the ability of people without students in a given school district to raise objections to books in those districts’ libraries.
Under the sweeping new education bill, HB 1285, people without children in the school district will only be able to file one objection per month.
Parents with children with access to district materials, including those with home-schooled children, still They may present unlimited objections.
Free speech groups and others have denounced a campaign by conservative-led states, including Florida, to ban the books while trying to limit discussions about race and gender, leaving educators scrambling to change lesson plans amid of confusion and fear.
“Florida is the number one state in the country for education,” DeSantis said in a news release about the bill. “By focusing on core academic subjects and rejecting classroom indoctrination, we have become standard bearers for educational excellence. “The legislation I signed today continues to build on Florida’s past achievements.”
The new law seeks to address logistical challenges posed by a highly controversial 2022 law, which gave people new powers to raise objections to books available to students in K-12 school libraries. The law also required that the materials be appropriate for the age of the students.
One of the most cited cases of that law’s effects was a school district removing a children’s book about baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente to comply with a 2022 state law that restricts how topics such as racism and sexual orientation can be taught in schools.
However, the law has also faced logistical challenges, as objections to the book have increased in school districts since the bill was passed.
The statement issued by the governor’s office implicitly acknowledges the drawbacks of the 2022 legislation, saying the new legislation “protects schools from activists who attempt to politicize and disrupt a district’s book review process.”
Florida has banned more books than any other state, and the nonprofit literary organization PEN America recorded 1,406 cases of books being pulled from shelves between July 1, 2022 and June 31, 2021.
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