The relationship between public schools and Florida’s state government has been rocky at best for years. A series of laws passed in the last two sessions will further exacerbate an apparent desire by the Legislature to expose education leaders to as much vitriol as possible.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday signed into law a bill that would expose every textbook, library book and instructional material to objections from extremists anywhere in the country.

Every elementary school in the state must now make publicly available a list of all such materials in a searchable form on school websites, and media specialists must go through a public approval process before adding new selections. When districts receive objections, those will go on a list for review annually by Florida’s Commissioner of Education, and the state will maintain a list of removed or discontinued items.

LGBTQ children really came into the crosshairs of legislators this year in a Session dominated by culture wars but where insurance reform and building inspection regulations couldn’t make it across the finish line.

While there’s been enormous attention paid to the ‘don’t say gay’ bill, it seems likely the most controversial parts of that particular piece of legislation will end up thrown out of court or prove utterly unenforceable anyway. To hear supporters talk about it, one wonders if the intention is for it to do anything at all considering Florida’s existing education standards already relegate curriculum instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity to older grade levels.

But in many ways, this instruction materials bill seems far more nefarious. Coupled with a 12-year term limit on school board members, this bill seems destined to lead to more books being banned from schools.

When Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota, presented a Senate version of the bill earlier this year, one supporter showed up with a children’s book encouraging the acceptance of peers who may be transgender. “It Feels Good To Be Yourself” was written by Theresa Thorn, the mother of a transgender girl, and the book largely explains the topic of gender identity in terms children would understand. There’s no sex. Yet a speaker from the group Best SOS America lumped it in with pornography and said it would create gender confusion among children.

Like many bills this year, this legislation was sold as an empowerment of parents. The irony that a book written by a mother who wanted a safer, more accepting world for her child should not be lost on anyone.

The level of cruelty and bigotry on display in some of the hearings this year was hard to stomach. But even putting aside from this intolerance shown to children, it’s stunning that a year after stopping cancel culture served as a rallying cry to lawmakers, empowering censorship became the theme of this year’s session.

When this has been called a book banning bill in the past, it’s been greeted by pushback, just as supporters of “don’t say gay” dismiss that branding as inaccurate. The instructional materials bill may not explicitly itemize a list of contraband book titles, but it sets up a process for such a list will be constructed. 

All we can do now is hope there are enough proponents of free speech and expression, advocates for diversity and believers in the power of education to object to the objections when extremists try to take important material off the library shelves.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor for SRQ MEDIA.