Governor DeSantis calls on legislature to crack down on frivolous book challenges
TAMPA, Fla. - Governor Ron DeSantis on Thursday supported a bill aimed at deterring "bad-faith objections" to school library books and instructional materials.
DeSantis says the system that enables parents and community members to challenge inappropriate material is being abused.
"You have seen activists that will just go and challenge almost anything that’s not appropriate," said DeSantis during a press conference in Orlando. "Hijacking this process is not something that we want to encourage in any way, and it’s been from different motivations. You have some people that think a lot of these books are bad, even though they’re classics, and there’s others that are doing it just to create a narrative."
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DeSantis also noted many objections are coming from people who don’t have children attending the schools where the material is located.
"If you have a kid in school, OK, but if you’re someone who doesn’t have a kid in school, and you’re going to show up an object to 100 books: no that’s inappropriate. So I think the legislature is interested in limiting the number of challenges you can do, and maybe making it contingent on whether you actually have kids in school or not," explained DeSantis.
The governor specifically highlighted a bill currently making its way through the Florida House. HB 7025 would impose a $100 "processing" fee on unsuccessful book objections in certain situations.
The fees would apply to people who do not have a student enrolled in the school where the material is located and who have unsuccessfully objected to five materials during the calendar year.
Governor DeSantis says excessive and inappropriate challenges are overburdening school districts and not in the spirit of the 2022 measures that eased the process for people to object to books and other materials.
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"People that don’t have kids in school pay taxes to support the school system. They do have an interest in this, so I’m not sure you can say they can’t do it at all," explained DeSantis. "But I think you can just limit it and then what you can also do is if you object to like a To Kill A Mockingbird or Hank Aaron, that obviously is a frivolous objection and those books should be in school, then maybe after one or two frivolous objections you have to pay a fine because you’re having people go through all this."
According to a House staff analysis of the bill, Florida had 1,218 book objections during the 2022-2023 fiscal year, resulting in the removal of 386 books. The vast majority of book challenges came from Clay and Escambia counties.
The bill, which also deals with other education issues, has received approval from three panels and is positioned to go before the full House.
Similar bills in the Senate do not include book-objection fees.
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