I see a lot of folks upset and frustrated by book bans in our schools, and classroom libraries shutting down. I am frustrating too, but it’s really important to understand how this happened as it’s the only way to fight back long term.
Here is the final vote on HB1467, the bill that would eventually lead to where we are today. This included two elements: One was 12 year term limits for all school board members (which BTW, really should be a ballot amendment not a bill, but no one is brave enough to sue and challenge the GOP on that) and the second part was the mechanism to ban books by requiring ALL books to be inventoried into an online database where anyone — in the world — can contest to remove books. Even folks who don’t live in FL or have kids in the school district can try to remove our books.
If that wasn’t bad enough, the bill (after being signed into law by DeSantis) was then EXPANDED by the Board of Education to be enforced, not just on school libraries, but on CLASSROOM libraries too. I’ve included the names of Board of Education members but you can read more about them here.
They include friends of DeSantis and corporate executives who work for Walmart and ATT. None of this is merit based, it’s basically awarding and empowering your political allies and corporate donors.
See a link with the full votes here too.
I share this as a reminder that elections have consequences. We need to spread the word and make sure folks are ready to vote in 2024. Elections will be here before you know it and nothing will change if folks don’t come out and vote.