HB 900, The Reader Bill, regarding control of books in schools
March 17, 2023 | Austin, TX
On Tues., March 21, 8 am, the House Public Education Committee will hold a hearing in room E2-036 on HB 900, authored by Representative Jared Patterson (HD 106).
The Reader Bill, aka HB 900, seems to take a different tack from Representative Steve Toth’s HB 5251 on the subject of controlling the books our kids can access in school libraries. Aspects of HB 900 are concerning.
HB 900 says that “The Texas State Library and Archives Commission, in consultation with the State Board of Education, shall adopt VOLUNTARY standards for school library services, other than collection development and that a school district shall CONSIDER [the standards] in developing, implementing, or expanding library services.
The standards adopted under the bill must include a policy that prohibits the acquisition of material rated as sexually explicit material, permits the exclusion from a school library of materials that are pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable and it does define the terms. The standards also require parental consent to sexually relevant library materials.
Additionally it says that a book vendor may not sell a book to a school district or open-enrollment charter school before issuing appropriate ratings related to sexually relevant material and sexually explicit materials. Vendors may not sell a book containing sexually explicit materials to a school district or open-enrollment charter school.
It also requires that the vendor wanting to sell to schools develop and submit to the agency a list of each book containing sexually explicit relevant material; submit to the agency any books sold with sexually relevant material or sexually explicit material that were sold during the preceding year; and the agency shall post each list submitted on the agency's Internet website as soon as practicable.
If the vendor violates this section and if corrections have not been made in the required time frame the sales to the vendor could cease and all books violating this section will be returned under recall to the vendor.
Concerns about HB 900
First, the words, ‘voluntary’ and ‘consider’ are troublesome. Second, are the Texas State Library and State Board of Education the people who should be developing these standards? Third, Speaker of the House Dade Phelan likes this bill and his intentions are questionable thus far in the 88th Legislative Session.
Is this bill intended to ‘satisfy’ constituents, as opposed to legislation that would have more teeth to deal with the problem? Legislation can be difficult to interpret, so we recommend reading the text for yourself here. If you have additional thoughts on this bill, or a different understanding of the bill altogether, please email MCRP Legislative Chair Bonnie Lyons at info@mctxgop.org. She’d love to hear your thoughts on this!
Take Action
Contact your state senator to voice your concerns about HB 900 before the hearing on Tues., March 21 at 8 am.