State Affairs Forum delegates Natalie Koch and Mackie Beitsch believe some books should be banned from schools. But, they don’t believe that individual school districts should be the ones to ban books. “Our current education system allows books to be banned by each district,” said the delegates in their proposal. “This allows far too much subjective and based bias against certain topics.”
According to the American Library Association, 2023 brought 695 attempts to censor library materials from Jan. 1 to Aug. 3. These attempts are not evenly dispersed across the country, as Texas is the state with the most attempts at censorship. As an attempt to regulate yet still allow parent-led regulation of school materials, delegates Koch and Beitsch propose a TEA statewide committee to review challenged materials. “The state will form a state review committee within TEA for the purpose of regulating the restriction of books within public school libraries,” said Koch and Beitsch in their proposal. “Individual districts will no longer be allowed to ban a book of their own accord.”
Although on a much larger scale, the banning process would remain similar to what many districts have already implemented. “Parents, students, or faculty may submit books to the committee for a rating to either repeal or institute a ban on a book,” said the proposal. Not only would the state allow or disavow different books, but the committee would also be tasked with rating any book brought before them. “According to their content, books will be rated in a 5-tier system by the TEA said the proposal. “One being the lowest, containing little to no sensitive content, and five being the highest with a great amount of sensitive content.”
Beitsch and Koch aim not to cap school censorship. Instead, their goal is to funnel attempts through a reasonable, regulated source. The delegates state their expected outcome is “an increased amount of liberty of information for students, peace of mind for educators, vendors, and parents.”
Written by: Elaine Carte-Engel