HB 1467 in FL now heads to DeSantis. Supporters say it "increases transparency" in the selection of books and instructional materials. But as with the whole "transparency" movement, you have to wonder what the bill ACTUALLY does... 🧵 wtsp.com/article/news/p…
The bill establishes term limits for school boards, but the real emphasis is on policies to strictly monitor access to books in schools, in curriculum, libraries, classroom libraries, heck, even on reading lists. flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2…
First it establishes that every school board must have a policy for a parent or "resident of the county" to object or contest to any book/material in a school or on a reading list. They can object to anything, based on two grounds:
1) if the material was adopted w/o being subject to a public hearing, notice, review; and 2) if it is "pornographic" or "inappropriate" to the age/grade level. There are zero guidelines in the bill for explaining how such determinations are to be made.
If any kind of material is found in the school in violation of these policies, it must be discontinued. Also every year the district has to send a list of all discontinued materials & books to the commissioner, so they can circulate a list of such banned books to all districts.
Sidebar-- look who is being considered to be next FL education commissioner - founder of Moms For Liberty. Universally known for their love of banning books. centralfloridapost.com/2022/03/10/mom…
Back to HB 1467 - There are specifications in the bill about how a public hearing must be held on any instructional material challenged within 30 days of the challenge. (it might be 60 days). But they have to have public open hearings on all materials in schools.
Then there's the websites! Bill mandates public searchable websites of all library books in elementary schools, or required on reading lists, as well as a searchable website with a list of all instructional materials. This will ease the extreme scrutiny the bill encourages.
Btw: "instructional materials" is defined quite broadly, ofc -- "items having intellectual content that by design serve as a major tool for assisting in the instruction of a subject or course. These items may be available in bound, unbound, kit, or package form and...
may consist of hardbacked or softbacked textbooks, electronic content, consumables, learning laboratories, manipulatives, electronic media, and computer courseware or software." (Glad they specified both hardbacked and softbacked).
Schools also have to make all these materials available for inspection to parents and residents of the county. So you basically are subjecting schools to this extreme level of scrutiny. Most parents who want to know what's in school curricula and reading lists btw already can.
Hard to imagine how this is going to do anything but cause chaos and undue administrative burdens on schools, but we'll see. I can imagine parents of different political suasions duking it over every textbook or instructional material until there's none left.
Oh and we have seen this in Polk County. Where local parents group got the school board to change how it presented the words "anus" and "bladder". HB 1467 is only going to invite more such demands, no matter how outlandish. theledger.com/story/news/edu…
Imagine you're a teacher/librarian under this new regime with 1467 in FL. This is going to feel like a radical form of surveillance, Orwellian, like "Big Brother", a means to monitor teaching with unprecedented precision, to intimidate, exercise control. thedailybeast.com/big-brother-is…
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