Colorado senators on the Senate Education Committee voted against a bill that would make it harder to remove content from schools and public libraries.
Senate Bill 49 has undergone numerous changes in response to concerns from Colorado school districts that the bill is too prescriptive and tramples on communities' ability to make their own policy decisions.
State Sen. Lisa Cutter, a Jefferson County Democrat and co-sponsor of the bill, deferred requesting a vote on the bill to introduce amendments after Monday's three-hour committee hearing.
But on Wednesday, the Senate Education Committee voted 5-2 against the amendment, after voting 4-3 against it.
After the hearing, Cutter said he thought the changes he made were enough to get the bill approved.
“We've made a lot of adjustments, and to be honest, I'm not 100% sure why it didn't pass,” she said.
The biggest pushback came from the Colorado School Boards Association, which represents more than 1,000 school board members in the state. But Cutter said the proposed amendments were enough for the association to drop its opposition.
Hilary Daniels, the association's staff attorney, said in testimony that the original bill would block Colorado's local control provisions that allow school boards to adjust education policy to the needs of their communities. Ta.
The law would also have been redundant, she says.
“Local school boards are fully aware of the First Amendment prohibition against removing books from school libraries for partisan or discriminatory reasons,” she said. “These legal parameters are already included in her CASB (Colorado Association of School Boards) sample policy regarding public complaints about educational materials, and districts are using it to inform their own policies.”
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School commissioners from around the state representing the association said many schools have already developed their own policies to address parts of the law, including who can and cannot object to the books. . They said these policies help protect content and staff.
Cutter and other lawmakers addressed those concerns Tuesday, and an amended bill filed Wednesday would create a process for schools and libraries to address withdrawals of other library materials, such as books and movies, if they don't already have one. Said it needed to be created. Audio or computer software.
The bill would also have created protections for librarians, school administrators and volunteers. Under the bill, only residents who live within the library district or whose children are in the school district could request the removal of books.
We also could not have reviewed content for removal more than once every five years.
“I'm particularly disappointed that they didn't at least consider the part that pertains to public libraries,” Cutter said. “I wish I had at least mentioned that.”
Librarians and other advocacy groups, including the ACLU of Colorado and the Colorado Library Association, testified that the proposal would protect content and librarians.
From January to August 2023, Colorado libraries heard eight challenges for 136 titles, according to the American Library Association. Around the same time, book bans increased rapidly across the United States, and other states passed laws prohibiting them.
The most widespread challenge comes from a small number of conservative organizations.
Colorado Education Association President Amie Baca-Olert said most of the challenged books were written by or about people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“This political tactic has dire consequences for children, who, according to research, benefit greatly from seeing people like them in books and classrooms,” she said. .
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Cutter said he would consider whether he could reintroduce the bill and “see if we can figure out what the problem was.”
Jason Gonzalez I'm a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado Legislature.Chalkbeat Colorado is affiliated with: open campus About the scope of higher education. Contact Jason: jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.
