>the Florida school book ban which applies not just to new editions of one author, but to an entire state's education system.
I see no problem with the government determining what information can and can't be made available to children at public school. This isn't the government making certain information verboten universally, it's ensuring that other people cannot indoctrinate your children with information you find objectionable. Children's minds have become the new front-line of the culture war, and this is an entirely reasonable reaction.
I see it as a totalitarian measure, rather than leaving it to school librarians to make those choices, while listening to the expressed feedback and requests from the students and their parents at that school.
That's fine until librarians or teachers consistently get it wrong. A school librarian's discretionary power isn't intrinsic, it is granted conditional on its proper use. I'm sure there are many topics that if a teacher or librarian presented to your children you would move to remove their discretionary power. The debate is merely on what topics cross that line.
> I'm sure there are many topics that if a teacher or librarian presented to your children you would move to remove their discretionary power
I would first consult with them, and, if necessary, go to the school board if I thought they were being unnecessarily intransigent (or too ideological). In other words, I much prefer working from the bottom up, i.e. from the local community level, rather than having prescriptions imposed from the top down.
I see no problem with the government determining what information can and can't be made available to children at public school. This isn't the government making certain information verboten universally, it's ensuring that other people cannot indoctrinate your children with information you find objectionable. Children's minds have become the new front-line of the culture war, and this is an entirely reasonable reaction.