State senators signaled this week that they may try to toughen the law that put school boards in charge of what books go on library shelves, after a hearing in Austin drew sharply different views on whether the law has gone too far or not far enough.
The Senate Education Committee took up Senate Bill 13 on Wednesday. Passed during the last legislative session as one of several "parental rights" measures, the law shifted final approval of library materials from librarians to school boards and let districts create School Library Advisory Councils to vet new titles, KERA News reported.
Lawmakers question the books already on shelves
Sen. Brent Hagenbuch, who represents the Denton area, said some books with explicit content remain in school libraries despite the law. He pointed to comments from activist Bonnie Wallace, who said on a podcast with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that about 20% of districts had removed books through local councils while 80% had done nothing.
"It sounds like, if this is accurate, the law's not really having the effect that we had hoped," Hagenbuch said, adding that the law does not really address books already in collections.
Shannon Trejo, a deputy commissioner at the Texas Education Agency, agreed that existing collections are a gap. Many districts do not have an online catalog of their library books, she said, and districts have raised concerns that reviewing every book already on the shelves would be a heavy workload.
Committee chair Sen. Donna Campbell asked why objectionable material remains if parents have local control, and said the state might have to step in. She described local control as good "until it's 'loco' control."
