Back in 2021 and 2022, I wrote a lot about how book bans weren’t about the books specifically. They’re about the ways those books can be used as a tool to do a lot more damage and they’re one arm of a many-tentacled approach in the march toward authoritarianism. Book removals allow erasure of entire swaths of people—marginalized people specifically—and book challenges and subsequent book bans are a convenient tool for destabilizing and defunding public institutions like schools and libraries.
The argument is straightforward: if you would not have purchased the “inappropriate” material in the first place, then you would not need to spend all of this money on the process of reviewing the material. Taxpayer money is at stake and poorly stewarded from start to finish. It’s a circular argument.
Books being challenged are not, of course, inappropriate. The complaints are driven by a white supremacist ideology, and that same ideology is purposefully driving narratives and policies that are defunding these institutions. Look at states like Arizona and Iowa, where public voucher schemes moved through state legislation and have now permitted these same book banners to steal request money meant for public schools so they can enroll their students in the school of their choice. These schools are overwhelmingly politically motivated or angled, benefitting from a pool of taxpayer money that should be going to schools with guidelines and requirements beneficial to the public but instead are going to private and often unregulated interests. In Iowa, it’s caused at least one public school to close despite no change in private school enrollment statewide, and in Arizona, these vouchers have essentially bankrupted the state.
Back in early 2022, I wrote about the importance of talking about the cost of book bans. The numbers were quick and dirty and meant to both inform the general reader and encourage libraries to update their collection policies to address the financial burden mass challenges place upon their limited budgets. Now, two and a half years later, we have actual numbers coming from districts nationwide on how much this swell of book challenges and bans is costing taxpayers—most of whom have no interest in banning books and who believe book bans infringe on their rights as parents. The numbers are a reminder of how much money book banning—perennially and statistically unpopular with the vast majority of American adults—is wasting taxpayer money.
This is far from comprehensive, and these numbers come from a snapshot in time when the reports were issued. That means these numbers are higher now if reviews are still in motion.
- Spring Branch Independent School District (TX) spent $30,000 on a single book review. This is a huge sum, and as a response to the drain on resources, the district elected to give power to the board in making book ban decisions. Not only did this cost an absurd amount of money, it played right into the ultimate goal of those challenging books—giving control to those they can most easily influence and manipulate. In the following school year (that’s this year), every librarian in the district was laid off due to district budget cuts.
- Hamilton East Public Library (IN) spent over $300,000 on reviewing and relocating books in the public library. Recall that this story was about moving any YA books deemed inappropriate, a description running the gamut from puberty books to books about war, out of the YA area. It was coordinated by the board, which included several far-right local figures—including Micah Bechwith, now running for Lieutenant Governor of the state to push his far-right agenda even further. Ultimately, this $300,000 was nothing but a waste of money and time, as the controversial policy was overturned a few months later with the ousting of the board president (the one board member against ending the policy was book banning Beckwith).
- Escambia County School Board (FL) has spent $107,000 so far on legal fees to defend their decision to ban And Tango Makes Three. That’s one lawsuit of the two the district faces, and that number does not represent the thousands of dollars spent in their pursuit of removing more than 1,000 other titles along the way. It also does not include the fees from this summer spent on the lawsuit. Again: they face two lawsuits. We know only the cost of the one.
- The Davis School District (UT) spent $27,000 over the course of two years to review about 100 book titles. Thirteen, all of which are on the state mandated book ban list, were removed. This wasteful spending on a made up problem included the banning of The Bible, followed by a change in decision, reinstating The Bible.
- Washington County School District (UT) spent far less on their book challenge reviews, but they made the bizarre decision to not only acquire copies of each book for review (that’s standard) but to also purchase Kindle Paperwhite ereaders for each committee member. That was an unnecessary extra $1,400.
- Northampton County Moms For Liberty have cost the Nazareth Area School District (PA) to spend over $100,000 reviewing 23 books they deemed inappropriate.
- Citizens Defending Freedom wasted $25,000 of Polk County Schools (FL) budget on the review of three books that members of the right-wing group were unhappy remained on shelves after previously being reviewed as part of a larger challenge of titles.
- Lee’s Summit School District (MO) worked their way through half of the 90 books challenged in a mass challenge—all of the titles at this point were retained and not banned—and it cost them $19,000. Again, that was only half of the challenged books.
- Clark County School District in Nevada has cited a figure of $5,000 for the process of reviewing a single book in a single school.
- In Llano County, Texas, the legal battle costs have been escalating significantly. The public library was sued by a group of residents over the banning of books in the collection. As of the most recent update this week, the costs were estimated at over $270,000 in taxpayer dollars. The county lost their appeal this year. Per Axios, the attorney representing the county charges $450 an hour, plus all travel, accommodation, and a per diem. This isn’t the only lawsuit that the county is on the hook for, either. They’re also involved in a lawsuit by a former employee of the public library who was terminated for not banning the books the board demanded be removed. That’ll be tens—if not hundreds—of thousands of dollars more on the taxpayer’s plate.
- Jamestown Public Library (ND) spent over $54,500 in staff costs to review books for “explicit sexual material,” in accordance with the state’s new law. This review didn’t cost the taxpayers more money since it was in the budget for staff time; however, what that meant is that $54,500 in staff time and resources were unable to be used on other projects or tasks. This is an important point because it’s a reminder that even if there’s no additional expense, it is a drain on resources that are better used elsewhere. Sorry your librarian cannot help answer your reference questions today and needs to cancel storytime; they’re busy reading through every children’s book looking for the so-called “explicit sexual material” a small group of liars believes exists.
And here’s the thing: once these vouchers are made possible and used to send students to schools that have no oversight or regulations like their public school counterparts have, none of the books on the shelves in those schools will face this kind of challenge. The laws about books in schools apply only to public institutions, so these people get to double-dip by robbing districts with their complaints and then robbing them of their funding through vouchers.
Book Censorship News: October 18, 2024
With the holiday in the US this week, the news roundup is lighter than usual.
- Montgomery County, Texas, officials have been in the process of creating havoc in the public library. The latest move? Reclassifying a nonfiction book about abuse against Native people to the fiction section. Here’s more context—this story has been evolving through the last couple of years here in Literary Activism.
- Moms For Liberty won a free speech case down in Florida over policies related to limiting public comments at school board meetings. This is neither a good nor bad thing.
- “The Wake County [NC] school board will decide whether a book is too “demonic” to remain in an elementary school library or is just a piece of satire that’s acceptable for students to read.” What a waste of time and money.
- A look at some of the groups doing anti-book ban work in the Miami, Florida, area.
- The Bluest Eye will remain on library shelves at Kuna High School (ID).
- Montana’s State Library Commission had a “spirited” discussion last week about the definition of young adult literature. Recall that more and more libraries are losing their YA sections because of the far-right moral panic over teen books.
- “We brought this information back to Knox County Moms for Liberty and shared this data with their treasurer, Sherri Garrett. She told us one of the titles she was most concerned about was Gender Queer. “Even if one child has checked this book out in a two-year span, that’s still one child too many,” Garrett said. “They are targeting teenagers who are already going through issues with puberty and hormone changes. I think that confuses children and, and I think it’s alarming.”” WBIR, a Tennessee news organization, looked at how many times four books that the local Moms For Liberty is hurt by were checked out in Knoxville County Schools. This was her response. Reminder: she has no idea WHO checked it out.
- Rockingham County Public School (VA) just banned Allegedly and Looking For Alaska from the district.
- From the school district that brought you a banning of 250-some titles and the Moms For Liberty member who just entered the school building to look for “naughty books” was a proposal from a board member to have the Ten Commandments on school walls. This is Iredell-Statesville Schools in North Carolina and it was rejected. You see this, though, right?
- A crisis actor in Loudoun County, Virginia, was handing students fliers about so-called “inappropriate” books in the schools. He sounds very stable in everything in this interview and more, given how he trusts the schools enough to pull his kids, I’m sure he’s the person who should be speaking to them.
- How South Carolina librarians are dealing with the new laws about books in school libraries.