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Literary Activism

Save Public Libraries and Schools By Voting Down-Ballot: Book Censorship News, October 25, 2024

One of the most crucial things you can do to save democratic institutions is to vote for board seats and other down-ballot initiatives.

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Kelly Jensen

Editor

Kelly is a former librarian and a long-time blogger at STACKED. She's the editor/author of (DON'T) CALL ME CRAZY: 33 VOICES START THE CONVERSATION ABOUT MENTAL HEALTH and the editor/author of HERE WE ARE: FEMINISM FOR THE REAL WORLD. Her next book, BODY TALK, will publish in Fall 2020. Follow her on Instagram @heykellyjensen.

View All posts by Kelly Jensen

As has always been the case, but even more in focus the last half-decade, public institutions like libraries and schools are on the ballot. We’re less than two weeks out from the election, and while many have already voted early, most people will be hitting the polls between now and November 5.

But as important as the top of the ballot is in elections—Book Riot has endorsed Kamala Harris for president because of how important this is in 2024 especially—down-ballot races across the nation have as much, if not more, impact on your everyday life. This is especially true when it comes to elections in your community for school and/or library boards. If you’ve been reading Literary Activism, you know this has been the same drum beat since this weekly column began, and it was emphasized again as one of the most potent things you can do to end book bans and censorship earlier this year.

So this week, here’s your reminder to get to know what is on your local ballot, how to determine the best candidate for office, and then what to do after you don your “I voted” sticker. The suggestions here will take some time, so carve out an hour or so before you go to vote. You can do these things all at once or break them up into chunks.

Find Out What’s On Your Ballot

  • Not every state is currently voting in elections for school boards or library boards. In some cases, this is because those are appointed rather than elected positions. The first thing to do is figure out how the process works in your community. Navigate to your local school board’s website and your local library’s website and find the page about their board. Information about the process should be readily available there, but if it is not, you may need to locate that information on your city or county’s web page. Regardless of whether these positions are up for vote this year, knowing how the process works in your community is important.
  • View a sample ballot for your community. You can find these in many places, including your county clerk’s office website where they host information about elections. Here’s an example from Kane County, Illinois—it’s front and center. If you cannot find a sample ballot on your county clerk’s election page, there are many other places you can seek one out. Try Vote 411, a project of the League of Women Voters Education Fund. You’ll enter your address and see a sample ballot. Of note, though, is this might not be a comprehensive look at your ballot. For me, it does not show any of the local elections; I needed to refer back to my county elections website for those. Another option for viewing your ballot is Ballotpedia, where you’ll enter your address, and you can walk through each of the parts of your ballot. This one was comprehensive for me, down to local offices.
  • Go individual by individual on those sample ballots and look up the candidates. Some may have no web presence at all, which might be a red flag, but most will have at bare minimum a Facebook page. Your local newspaper, if you have one, may have interviews with each of the candidates (and if you’re paywalled from this, after you cuss a bit, see if you can access the unpaywalled version via your library). Red flags in candidates for school or library board will include language like “parental rights” or “school choice.” Red flags will be clear, too, if you are voting in nonpartisan board elections and you see clear partisanship in the candidate’s affiliations or endorsements. Here are the candidates, for example, who have signed on in agreement with Moms For Liberty’s values and mission; this link is the archived version from October 9, so there may be additional entries, but the archive allows you to browse without giving the organization’s website traffic.
  • If you do not have board elections this year or your boards are appointed, find out who oversees those boards or departments. This could be the mayor in your community or any number of other elected city/county commissioners. Find out what their stance is on the democratic institutions of public libraries and schools. Vote accordingly. You want the person in charge of overseeing the people making library and school decisions to be someone who is a proponent of both. (This applies if your ballot includes all of these offices, too!)
  • Research any library or school-related initiatives. You want to fund these institutions if those questions arise. Likewise, any initiatives that may expand the size of school or library boards are a good one. You want a wider variety of opinions in these spaces, not fewer. This is precisely how some boards have been overtaken—they’ve shrunk from 9 or 11 members to 5 or 7 and created voting blocks.

You can take your notes on how you plan to vote with you to the polls. Do not, however, take a photo of your ballot itself while there. This is illegal in many areas of the country.

Who Is The Best Candidate For This Role?

  • As noted above, look at the language used in campaigns, posts, and events used by candidates. Red flags include any array of buzz words that have proliferated over the last four years, including critical race theory, comprehensive sexuality [sic] education, social-emotional learning, decreasing test scores in reading, grooming or indoctrination, liberty, book curation, vouchers, parental input/rights, and anything you may have once stumbled upon here. If you’re not quite finding anything with that language, you could always look up where these candidates stood on things like virtual school options for COVID (if they advocated “reopen the schools,” that’s a red flag, as the schools were never closed) or anti-masking/anti-vaccination debates between 2020-2022. This was particularly helpful in researching my own school board candidates last year, as one did not have a website or much information available at all, but I found a photo of her in the local newspaper with a giant “unmask the kids!” sign.
  • Dig around to see where candidates may have received money. In states like Texas, Political Action Committees (PACs) from both within and beyond the state have been flooding local elections for schools with money. Candidates who take that money have an obligation and commitment to a cause that has nothing to do with serving their community and the students within it. They’re there for the group funding them. Here’s a list of currently registered PACs within Texas; if you see a candidate has an affiliation, see what that PAC does. As with so many other things on this list, you may need to look at any number of places to find the campaign finance information. Begin at the county clerk’s website for the election, then look to the state-level elections website. You could also try a basic Google search of the “candidate name” + “finance report” or something similar.
  • Locate nonpartisan voting guides. There are many out there, and your community may have local-specific guides. Whether or not you do, the nonpartisan League of Women Voters offers guides in each state (even down to the county!). Take a look at the Florida League of Women Voters guide for state amendment propositions—though they have made a suggestion for several, they offer both the proponent and opponent arguments for each. The first amendment on the ballot? Partisanship in school board elections. You can get down to the county level by visiting their Vote411.org website and/or you can look up candidates across any given state.
image from vote411.org with how to find information about candidates.
  • Then find those partisan voting guides that align with your beliefs and values. You may have a county democrat organization who puts together a voting guide that you can find, but you may also want to peruse local or regional leaders in championing public institutions. If you’re in Texas, Frank Strong puts together an incredible guide to school board candidates state wide, while Keep Florida Reading reached out to school board candidates there to hear what they believe in terms of access to reading materials in schools. Authors Against Book Bans have also been developing a rating system for school board elections. It’s not comprehensive, but you can peruse their Instagram posts for green-light candidates.
  • Another place to turn? Each state’s teacher union. Most, if not all, publish a voting guide for pro-education candidates. You can look up your state and education association to find yours (i.e., Nebraska + “Education Association”).

This is far from comprehensive, but additional voting guides include:

A bonus resource here is going to seem a little sideways, but it will be super helpful. Run For Something has been working to get good candidates to run for school board in the last couple of elections, and they put together this guide to doing just that. Included at the bottom of the guide is a list of resources for every single US state on running a campaign, and many of those include links to campaign finance information and more.

I Voted. Now What?

  • Share your work. Your neighbors and your friends trust you, and if you speak up about who you voted for—and yes, it can be as simple as “here’s who I voted for” without a why to it—you’re going to help other people make those decisions, too. Of course, if you want to share why, you do even more good.
  • If you’re nervous or don’t believe it is important to share your decisions, I cannot recommend listening to Eitan Hersh on Jon Favreau’s Offline podcast anymore. The episode “Are You Treating Politics Like a Hobby?” is worth listening to all the way through, but if you want the meat and potatoes only, go to Minute 27-37, which focuses on local efforts to make change, and Minute 46-51, which focuses on building relationships. You’ll hear why one of the most effective means of getting people to vote and to understand the importance of that act is by talking about how and why you do it.
  • Keep going. Whatever the outcome, the work is not done. Even if every pro-library and pro-school candidate wins, these institutions are still going to be under fire. The work has no end point—it’s a life long project. Take time to rest and hydrate so you can amplify the energy going into 2025.

I cannot recommend that during these next few weeks, you pick up and read a copy of Mike Hixenbaugh’s They Came For The Schools (as of writing, it’s $2 in ebook). This lays out exactly how special interests took over in one Texas school district and where and how they have maintained their power and authority at the expense of students, teachers, and the community at large. This snapshot of one district is what is happening in districts nationwide.

Book Censorship News: October 25, 2024

On a personal note: I’m taking some leave to care for a family member. I won’t be writing or collecting news for Literary Activism for about a month. This just means things will look different as my talented and smart colleagues cover for me, but you’re in good and capable hands and will stay abreast of the most vital book censorship news.

  • Wilson County Schools (TN) have banned over 400 books from shelves.
  • Ballard County Public Schools (KY) decided to pull books from library shelves because of a political mailer claiming there were inappropriate books in the school. This is meant to encourage voters to vote pro-voucher in the state and rob the public schools of taxpayer funds.
  • Six more books have been banned in Cobb County Schools (GA), bringing it up to a total of 32 books banned in the district.
  • Five books challenged in Selah High School (WA) will remain on shelves. It’s the same books you see challenged everywhere for the same reasons.
  • I can’t link you to the story of how Higley Unified School District (AZ) plans on reworking their book review process because it’s paywalled—but they failed to ban books following the process this year, so I suspect their new plans will make it easier for them to do just that.
  • Remember York County Library (SC) which planned to stop buying all books for those under 17? Well, one of the pro-book buying moratorium board members didn’t like that this got reported and demanded it be stricken from the record. Now it’s “just” books with “sexual content” that are banned from being purchased.
  • The CEO of the St. Charles Public Library (MO) has resigned. Can’t blame them, given how the board hates the library and has been banning adult books in the collection. Again, I’d tell you more, but I’m paywalled.
  • A group of public school parents have filed a lawsuit to end the new mandate of Bible lessons in Oklahoma Public Schools—and to curtail the spending of $3 million to buy Bibles for those schools.
  • “Trustee Tim Plass said that the last meeting revealed “a lot of comments at the meeting of this being ‘1984’ and tyrannical overreach” when his proposal for an Adult Access Only Restricted Areas draft policy was negated.   His suggestions that library staff need to “control the room” included using a camera to hiring a guard to potentially firing staff if they let someone into the area who was a minor to using a lock with a combination that changes weekly and compared it to checking into a hotel and getting the Wi-Fi password.  His concern was if there was signage would be that it would draw underage children to a restricted area and wants to ensure minors are deterred from “loitering” around adults-only access.” Welcome to the reality of public libraries in Idaho. This is Pinehurst Public Library and the board meeting resulted in several people being ejected.
  • Lambda Legal and the ACLU are once again suing over Iowa’s SF 496, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in the state that has led to mass book bans in schools, among other noxious things.
  • A nice piece in The Cut about the grandparents who are fighting against book bans.
  • The same Federal Judge who insists that a 7-year-old must testify in the lawsuit against Escambia County Schools for banning books is allowing the board members involved in the book banning not to testify. We know why.
  • Two former Moms For Liberty members are running for the Clark County School Board (NV). This shows up in a story about Ellen Hopkins visiting the district and talking about book bans. Her line about being turned on by rape is sharp.
  • “As shown in posts shared on Facebook, some far-right agitators are planning to collect LGBTQ+ books from libraries across Ireland and burn them. The people involved appear to be the same who targeted libraries last year, harassing staff and threatening to destroy queer titles.” This is in Ireland. This is what the Nazis did.
  • Suffern Central School District (NY) has launched an investigation as to why an “unapproved” book was read to elementary students. The book is about racial injustice, of course. This wouldn’t have happened if it were, you know, not about that.
  • Christian County Library (MO) continues to be a mess. This time, the board president resigned due to how cruel and bigoted some members of the community were being. This library had a proposal to label all LGBTQ+ books, then the board was ransacked by folks with a dark agenda.
  • A South Carolina teacher talks about the removal of a book from her class curriculum and how it was the direct result of elections.
  • The book that was changed from nonfiction to fiction in a Texas public library has been re-cataloged correctly. This was a book about Native history and part of the ongoing issues at Montgomery County Library.
  • Quilcene Public Schools (WA) has been dealing with right-wing book banners performing at school board meetings. This opinion piece from a local is well worth reading, particularly as it is the first time I’ve read anything about this school’s issues.
  • Higley Unified School District (AZ) has set up their book ban review panels which consist of 28 PEOPLE. This is absurd all around.
  • Laramie County Board of Trustees decided not to hear an appeal of a book labeled as having “sexually explicit content” in the district schools. The label stays on Monday’s Not Coming.
  • “Media specialists will review and vet the books, and the list will be shared with parents and guardians ahead of time for review. Students will need a signed permission form to attend the book fair.” There are now new rules for Greenville County Schools (SC) so they may have book fairs again. This sounds like it might be beyond the scope of the media special’s job duties, not to mention a prime opportunity for litigation if a kid sneaks into the book fair without permission and/or a parent objects to what the media specialist claims is appropriate. Just wait.
  • Two storybooks that showcase the fact families look different from one another are not being used in Montgomery County Schools (MD) amid a legal battle over whether or not parents can opt their kids out of such lessons. This is right where we begin to see the pressure on state legislature to allow vouchers so those parents can send their kids to private schools on the taxpayer’s dime and “shield” them from the world as it is.
  • I wrote last week about how much money book bans cost taxpayers. A new report out this week shows that in the last year, such “culture wars” (it’s not a culture war if it’s a small number of agitators) cost taxpayers over three BILLION dollars.
  • In Fairhope Public Library (AL) all people under 17 need explicit permission to borrow books from certain sections of the library.
  • Two books in Monroe County Library (GA) have been moved from where they were originally shelved into other areas of the library following a complaint. The thing most fascinating here is why they’re removing the rainbow sticker from Gender Queer when they move it.