You might think that efforts to ensure children cannot access sexually explicit material would be an issue that unites Texans. But unfortunately, that has not been the case in the state legislature.
In 2023, Texas passed House Bill 900 which sought to improve standards, strengthen reviews, and give parents some control over what their children had access to in school libraries. But the problem persisted, and inappropriate content was still being found.
This session, Sen. Angela Paxton introduced Senate Bill 13 which says that the buck stops with school boards rather than librarians. They now have the authority to review and remove books that receive complaints from the community. School boards are also empowered to create school advisory councils to review materials if 20 percent of parents in the district sign a petition in favor of creating one.
On the one hand, it’s beyond disappointing that we have administrators and librarians that can’t be trusted to ensure sexually explicit material isn’t available to children in their own libraries without their parents’ knowledge or consent. On the other, making elected school board members accountable and giving parents a pathway to do something about it makes a lot of sense.
Still, 55 members of the House, all Democrats, voted against this reasonable legislation. Their absurd argument is that the bill is a Trojan Horse to “ban” classic books like Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, and even the Bible. (That last one is interesting since the left routinely pushes to rid schools of any Biblical references at all.) But that is an intentional misreading of the language in the bill.
The left’s penchant for making sure kids can access sexually explicit material apparently extends to all libraries, not just schools. Rep. Daniel Alders proposed House Bill 3225, which wouldn’t even remove explicit books from public libraries, but simply ensure they were only available in the adult sections. Somehow that was too far for 36 House members – again, all Democrats – who voted against the bill.
The clock has almost run out on getting HB 3225 through the Senate, but thankfully SB 13 is on its way to the governor. Texas is making progress to protect kids and help parents, but it shouldn’t have to be this hard.
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