Florida’s Classroom Politics
By Adeline Beason
This summer, Florida passed a new bill, HB 1467, that prohibits materials, books in particular, unless they are approved by a librarian or “certified media specialist.” According to The Guardian, “The new guidelines for the Florida law outlines the books be free of pornographic material, suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material, and appropriate for the grade level and age group.” Although this rule seems harmless at first, the process for becoming a certified media specialist is lengthy and is taking some time to implement state-wide. What’s more, teachers who don’t comply will face felony charges. Since schools have begun the long process to have materials approved, teachers must remove books from their classrooms completely. Despite many of these books having prior approval from schools’ libraries. In response, teachers have covered their bookshelves with construction paper and even donating them to Goodwill.
This bill comes with a wave of legislation regarding educational policy and most notably a lawsuit involving Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, and the banning of critical race theory in public schools. In fact, many teachers have taken to social media to criticize the bill as “a totally political move” and “a ridiculous but scary attack on fundamental rights (According to the Herald-Tribune).” In addition, elementary schools are now required to upload their entire libraries online so parents can see what their children are reading; failure to do so is a third degree felony.
However, not every Florida school district is enforcing HB 1467. In Broward County, Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teacher’s Union, stated that the banning would not be happening there. Similar responses from Miami-Dade county have prompted some parents to question whether the law is even necessary. In a statement to the Bradenton Herald, Patricia Barber, a local educator, said “It’s a very sad day that any citizen can challenge a book and keep another child, whose parents might feel is an appropriate for their child, from having access to that book. It’s not just parents. It’s any citizen.”
Where do we draw the line? This bill seems to have the best interest of Florida’s students in mind, but the public response has been overwhelmingly negative. Education is a hot-button issue in the United States, and this new legislation feels like an overstep. School libraries already go through rigorous training to make sure their books are suitable for the classroom, and the requirement to have them further reviewed by a specialist forces educators to waste energy that could be better used elsewhere.