“It seems that the state has decided that it's not enough to ban thousands of books,” said UCF political science professor Aubrey Jewett. "We have to make it easier and spend millions of dollars to help people ban even more apparently."

wusf.org/education/2024…

@FLFreedomRead Let’s do some cognitive reframing, shall we? How about- parents gain access to all materials presented to their children in the public school system.

@Ldep478667 Parents already had access to this info, housed at the local level. Districts spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to comply with these laws already.

Now the state is paying $15.6M to duplicate the effort. There are dystopian novels written about it this type of “oversight.”

@FLFreedomRead Confusing- you’re concerned with another way to “ban” books (electronic review) OR that it’s a duplication? In other areas, I hear applause for making things digitally available, why wouldn’t that be true here?

@Ldep478667 There are many concerns around this tool: statewide removals instigated by a single person, additional drain on local resources, duplication of effort, copyright infringement, millions wasted on limitation efforts when there are hundreds of classrooms without books…

@Ldep478667 And then there is the deceitful way in which this “tool” was funded.

HB 1467 - the “transparency” law - passed without any local funding attached. Again, millions were spent collectively at the local level to come into compliance with this law.

On May 2, 2023 Chancellor Burns…

@Ldep478667 …testified that the FLDOE did not anticipate their expansion of the “library media center” definition to include classroom libraries would not impose additional expenses on the district to come into compliance - systems already existed in most districts….