FL Legislature passes one per month limit on ‘frivolous’ book challenges

Girl looking at books in public library. Dec. 31, 2022. States Newsroom.

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A measure placing a cap of one book challenge per month for people who don’t have students enrolled in the school district in which they placed an objection is heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk.

Florida lawmakers in the House voted on Thursday 84-29 to pass HB 1285.

The move to limit the number of objections to materials in classrooms and school libraries originated from Republicans in the House, with the Legislature’s top leaders and DeSantis expressing support for decreasing frivolous book bans. The Senate had approved the bill earlier this week.

“We are working very hard to get to a place where bad actors who file frivolous claims are stopped, and yet we have maintained the freedom for people to have conversations about what we ought to have in front of our children,” said the sponsor of the bill, Polk County Republican Rep. Jennifer Canady. “It’s a balance, and we’re working really hard to strike that balance.”

Most of the options lawmakers weighed during this year’s legislative session targeted people who aren’t parents of students in the districts in which they challenge materials. In fact, the House had passed a $100 “processing fee” on subsequent challenges filed by people who have already unsuccessfully challenged five materials available in a school district where they don’t have children enrolled.

Orlando Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani said she preferred the fee over the limit, referring to the limit as lax.

“I feel like that actually would have been better, at least to kind of put some more financial accountability on people that are just filing these restrictions with very little evidence to object and remove a book,” she said on the House floor.

The number of book challenges in the state has garnered national attention.

In the 2022-2023 school year, PEN America recorded 1,406 book ban cases in Florida, which accounted for 40%. The next state with the most book ban cases was Texas with 625. The PEN America report notes that Moms for Liberty, Citizens Defending Freedom and Parents’ Rights in Education are groups with chapters across the nation that have pushed for book bans.

A new certificate for classical school teachers

The bill has a number of other provisions, such as a requirement for the State Board of Education to establish specialized teaching certificates for people seeking to work in schools using a classical education model. Eighteen schools use the model focusing on grammar, logic and rhetoric, according to a staff analysis of the bill.

A person who holds the classical education teaching certificate wouldn’t have to demonstrate the same requirements as teachers in other schools, such as mastery of general knowledge, subject area knowledge, and professional preparation and education competence.

“Are we creating a new mechanism for teachers to be certified without having to be vetted through the required testing process that teachers not teaching in a classical school are required to pass?” said Democratic Rep. Ashley Gantt of Miami-Dade County.

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