News and Updates

What do you do when you don’t actually want to fix a problem, but you need to look like you’re fixing a problem?

Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida is gaslighting you when he says the political left is responsible for book bans.

Goblin butts represent a clear and present danger to the children of the United States.

Are school libraries shadow-banning conservative writers?  The answer may surprise you!

Duval County is a particularly frightening case study in the intersection of poor, vague legislation aimed at taking the diversity out of schools and a student body that is increasingly diverse racially and socioeconomically.

One county banned the dictionary.  Five times.

It has been a difficult year for education and literacy in the state of Florida.

Before Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) entered Winter Break, the Orlando Sentinel unveiled a comprehensive list of banned titles from classroom libraries. Printed across a full page in the Thursday paper, the list left Orange County parents astonished at the substantial number of books prohibited for self-selected reading in the classroom. However, this revelation only scratches the surface of the larger issue.

During the summer, OCPS allocated over $400,000 in overtime pay to certified media specialists. As of now, they have evaluated over 195,000 entries, making initial decisions guided by professional reviews, educator and librarian expertise, and FLDOE guidance, with a directive to "err on the side of caution."

Opt-In and Opt-Out forms have become a new tool of school districts under pressure by radical political groups to restrict students from libraries.  Though book bans are still spreading in the state, evidently they are not moving fast enough for organizations like the Florida Citizens Alliance.  So they have settled on a new course of action.

For a significant population of lower socio-economic means, book prices are actually prohibitive.  That means that when a book is removed from a library, it is effectively banned for that family.  Let’s say we are talking about a household that actually DOES have $400 saved for an emergency: what do you think the odds are that they feel safe spending 5% of their entire emergency fund on just one book?