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Liberals Panic Over Proposal to Close One Library System in Virginia

Pew Trusts Reports:

Amid the national uproar about whether to allow students access to a wide variety of books, the superintendent of a Virginia school district this week proposed a sweeping solution: Get rid of school libraries altogether.

Mark Taylor, who leads the district in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, suggested at a recent school board meeting that eliminating libraries would be a cost-reduction measure, saving $4.2 million in anticipation of $18 million in budget cuts............

..........Neither Taylor, nor the chair of the school board, returned calls seeking comment. But Taylor told a local television reporter that libraries are not necessarily vital, since "whole libraries are available on an app" on kids' cellphones.

One day after the meeting, Taylor ruled that 14 books that had been challenged by a parent as inappropriate and containing "sexually explicit" content must be removed from school libraries and declared "surplus" property. The 14 include Toni Morrison's "Beloved" and "The Bluest Eye," as well as "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen, a historical novel set in a Great Depression circus, and "Nineteen Minutes," by Jody Picoult, which is about a school shooting. Taylor suggested the books be donated to other libraries..............

Spotsylvania County has been a hotbed of book banning for a couple of years, ever since it passed and then rescinded a plan to remove "sexually explicit" books from school libraries. One board member apparently suggested burning books as well, according to news reports at the time..................

.............From July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022, 138 school districts in 32 states banned books, according to PEN America. These districts represent 5,049 schools with a combined enrollment of nearly 4 million students, the literacy group said.............