Wow. Another terrific essay. A tragedy for sure, and I so admire you for drawing attention to St. Joseph and other more rural towns. I have never visited Missouri. I believe you once had a good Senator from your state, Claire McCaskill, who I enjoy watching on MSNBC. As for the banning of books, it’s another terrible tragedy. Why must folks always try to control what other folks are doing? What happened to the watchwords of liberty and freedom they like to toss around?
Banning books is a way of teaching hate. When I taught school, I repeatedly encouraged my students (1st & 2nd graders) to treat others the way they wanted to be treated. Those folks who peddle hate handicap children.
Nailed it, Jess. Many of these people are brought in from out of town . Up here in Iowa, a local school here brought in people from "Moms for Liberty" to help make their case for removing books. They trotted out the whole "litterboxes in restrooms" and "furries" argument that's been thoroughly debunked. That town's library enacted a rule that only those who lived in the town the library served were allowed to submit objections to materials. There's a concerted effort by Christian nationalists to "erase" certain people from our society. Shove them back into the closet, if you will. LGBTQIA+, Blacks, Hispanic/Latino, even women of any kind or race. They don't want kids to learn about slavery, the Holocaust, Civil Rights movement, etc. Anyone who pays attention can see what they're trying to do, starve public schools so the ones left are only serving the kids private schools won't take: the poor, disabled, those with emotional or behavioral issues, learning plans, special needs, etc. I suspect the trend to roll back child labor laws so younger children can work more dangerous jobs also has something to do with it. It's sickening. They also hate it when someone calls books "banned." Even though something not allowed in a specific space is banned from that space. I've been reading and buying as many removed/banned books as I can get that I haven't already read. It's easy to see why they targeted the books, but if you ask them to explain to you why, they can't. Ask them if they've even read the book, they dodge giving you a straight answer. Explain to them that poor kids need libraries for access to books and they still say anyone can just go out and buy books they succeed in getting removed. They ignore the fact that those kids who use those spaces shouldn't have to buy a book they want to read when they can easily check it out of their local library.
Also not every library has every book. I was looking for what I thought was an important book on an online library in Oregon and they didn't have it. I am an adult and I can't afford to buy every book I'd like to read. That's just stupid.
Jane, I live in a small town in Kentucky. Our library is pitiful compared to the ones available to people in larger cities. But I can order any book I want to read, and they will find it for me in-state for free or out-of-state for a small postage charge. Maybe Oregon has the same service. Readers Unite!!
Correct that not every library has every book. But there are clear patterns as to which books are being targeted, and they're books found in most libraries, whether school, public or both.
This has been an effective way to fight back in other places, too: "That town's library enacted a rule that only those who lived in the town the library served were allowed to submit objections to materials."
It's hard to believe that in this century and millenium there are people who still objectify others based on their circumstances or lifestyle. Needing to feel superior, I suppose, rather than putting their kids into the mix to learn about the entirety of humans.
Thank you for writing this so succinctly, people need to know where this book-ban nonsense is coming from.
I live in NC and they have expanded vouchers here and my family (above the $150k income level) now has access to more than 30% of these private school vouchers. We go to public school because it’s really great (I do write a lot of letters about how they could do with more money). But, if anyone, anywhere was going to get a “government handout” to help them pay for private school-I can’t think of any reason that it would be my family. Seriously, if they’re going to earmark money for private school- it needs to have an income cap. This is just a redistribution of wealth. The subsidies don’t actually cover the cost of private school, so the people who could possibly benefit most can’t access the benefit. And at my income level we should just write a check.
Thank you for that, Melissa. I have no children, although I raised a few for family members. I so agree with your comment. This is absolutely a redistribution of wealth. And it’s more going to the top, not distributing downward. The public schools, need to be uplifted and properly funded, not torn down by people who only seek to profit from their destruction. I am a product of the Missouri school system - from way back! It was an excellent system, the teachers were engaging, and the kids learned. I went on to attain a master’s degree. They used to be good schools. It is so sad to see this happening.
I don’t understand why school choice and banned books are lumped together here. Banning books is wrong. It’s all about control. What does that have to do with school choice? It’s not only the far right who want to expand education opportunities. That is too simplistic. School Choice will have many flaws and need many adjustments. NC is moving forward with School Choice, we will be a testing ground.
Vouchers are a sophisticated redistribution of wealth con/grift using hysteria (banned books, et.al.) to cull/convince parents to privatize their property tax dollars for a lottery chance their child will be accepted.
When property taxes are diverted from public to private schools, the per child $ investment via vouchers is three times greater than the per child $ investment in public schools.
School choice vouchers are a reallocation of taxpayer dollars from public schools to private, often unregulated and religious, entities for profit.
My tax dollars are reallocate to many things. All taxes are reallocation and redistribution of wealth. That's the system we have. Should we fight about all of our taxes that are going to things we don't agree with? Yes, regulation, accountability and transparency is needed wherever our tax dollars go. We all need to demand that.
Paula, I think it has a lot to do with school choice, like maybe..."see what propaganda public schools are feeding your kids" Use you neighbor's tax dollars to send your kids to "John the Baptist Christian academy for future MAGA leaders"
We should be afraid of every religious school or only John the Baptist schools? Are all private schools raising MAGA leaders? It's not that simple and we shouldn't be fear mongering.
I think the question is whether public money should be going to schools that teach a particular religious point of view. You do bring up some good points. Thanks for engaging in a rational discussion.
Also, spending public money on private schools takes money away from public education. My children attended both private and public, and received excellent educations from both. But public schools need to be here, and financially sound for the next generations to come.
This is an assessment of the School Voucher system in NC....As I suspected it is skewed towards religious schools and there is no accountability re how the voucher students are doing in these private schools and the schools can close whenever...they have no allegiance to any state law to stay open. Plus to date, the state has spent $158.5 million on the voucher program:...that's a lot of taxpaper money not going to the public schools ...and 98% of the vouchers are used for religious schools AND The North Carolina voucher program is well designed to promote parental choice, especially for parents who prefer religious education for their children. It is poorly designed, however, to promote better academic outcomes for children and is unlikely to do so over time.
The public has no information on whether the students with vouchers have made academic progress or have fallen behind.
Those are just some of the salient facts in this report.
BTW I am very active in turning NC Blue this year so interact with a lot of people and groups on the ground. If your goal is to put more children in religious schools at the expense of the NC taxpayers you have achieved that. Do not be mislead that this is simply a program to help people afford a private education for their children...that is, unless they are seeking a private religious education for your children.
Paula…the impetus behind school vouchers is to deplete the public schools of financing and have that money go into private school, many that are religious schools and non integrated.Poorer people cannot afford to send their children to private school even with a voucher and many of these schools being”private” can reject any student they don’t want and not give a reason. why should public funds be used for private schools? Children should be entitled to go to good public schools where there s diversity and excellence…diminishing public schools is just another way of enforcing hate and bigotry and intolerance….and leaving the less monetarily fortunate with sub standard educations . You may recall it is what bigoted whites did in the south when integration in public schools became mandatory …which only fostered more bigotry and hate towards Black Americans.
Gail, In NC the impetus behind School Choice is not to close public schools and funnel money to religious or non-integrated schools as you have stated. Children are already entitled to go to public schools. They will continue to have that choice. School Choice does not mean all funds go to private religious organizations. There are other options with School Choice, traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online learning, homeschooling, special needs schools, micro-schooling, and mix-and-match learning. Traditional public schools should not have a monopoly on childhood education for children K-12. Public schools should not be afraid of competition if they are truly "good public schools".
Private schools aren’t held accountable the way that public schools are. It varies by location. Generally
• Private schools can discriminate and reject students, public schools cannot.
• Private schools aren’t required to accommodate handicapped students in the same way as public schools are. Funding for public schools is based on enrollment. Money can be distributed to the private school when the handicapped student starts out there, but not returned to the public school when the student returns to the public school because the private school couldn’t accommodate the student’s handicap.
• The curriculum in private schools isn’t subject to the same scrutiny as
public schools are.
Proponents of vouchers for private schools make it sound sexy but, as with many things, the devil is in the details. Starving public schools of money is a big goal of the supporters of school vouchers. They can deny it all they want, but it’s true. Betsy DeVos is a big supporter of private schools and has done a lot of harm to public schools in Michigan.
Driving 15 minutes across the Mississippi River to travel to work each day in Missouri from Illinois feels like landing in a foreign nation sometimes. I live in an old river town in IL becoming increasingly conservative. Yet, each one of the books you listed has been on display in my child's high school library this year...with not one complaint. Our governor banned banning books. My town has lots of kids living in poverty. There's addiction. Factories closed in the '80s and the effects are still widely apparent. We share so much commonality with our brethren right across the river. Yet, there still seems to be some kind of intrinsic value we still place on books, diversity (our area is almost 40% black and mixed race), and learning. That value, though, is incredibly tenuous and I see glimpses of MAGA seeping in. I only hope we're strong enough to keep it at bay.
I don’t believe all religious people are fascists. But the Christofascists who continually try to force our society to accept their version of what America should be, must be stopped.
I agree. I am not anti-Christianity, but I am greatly opposed to those who want to force American society to conform to their particular religious beliefs.
My last ten years as an educator I was the librarian of a K-5 in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Our free or reduced lunch rate was 93-95%, depending on the day you counted. Our population was 45% urban Black and 45% rural white when I started, and the Hispanic population grew over the years. In the fall 2017 I was forced to retire because I insisted on running the library by American Library Association standards. But I left behind a collection that represented ALL my kids much more than it did when I arrived. Jess, thank you for lifting up school librarians. They are in great need of vocal allies.
Very few things anger me more than the banning of books.
It is abundantly clear that the people who ban books do not recognize THEY are violating the First Amendment! (Perhaps if they read more, they would know this! 😉)
For the last 20 years, I have worked in educational publishing—specifically K12 science curriculum. It’s usually the people who do not have students in a district who will complain about the content of the books. Evolution is scandalous! Children do not need to know the specifics of one another’s anatomy. Climate change is a myth! Don’t you dare put any of that “woke” S.E.L. indoctrination in a Teacher Guide.
The voucher programs are one of the biggest frauds run by GOP supermajority states. We have this issue in Indiana too. Every year I write to, call my state level lawmakers, and make my displeasure known about the program and the money it steals from public education.
Book bans are their own tragedy. The people who are organizing them are working to destroy public education too. This is all a way to privatize education too, so only the privileged can afford it.
Oh God, this is hard to read. What lights me up is you don’t see anything approaching a comparable level of concern about the effects of poverty on the lives of these children. You don’t have powerful people campaigning against that on behalf of the school. Poverty is fine and tolerable and likely the natural order of thjngs, right? You just have — after years of complaining about liberal authoritarianism and intolerance at universities — people who aren’t in classrooms, who aren’t in schools, shoving their agenda about *books* down everyone’s throats. They don’t care about the children and they’d never have cared about what the children were reading if their agenda hadn’t directed them to.
It’s all so hollow and false and detrimental to students who already have so much stacked against them, I can’t stand it!
My first job out of law school was as a staff attorney at the St. Joe office of Legal Aid of Western Missouri. So, your description fits the town I remember. I’m so sorry to hear about the current crisis over book banning in the public schools.
I stand with the banned! Reading is fundamental. Thank you for writing about what is happening right under all our noses. We need to put our differences aside and stand together for what is right.
In a story framed in a dismal environment, populated by battered souls forgotten by politicians and community, small glimpses of humanity rising above the bleakness of sweltering oppressive heat and domination arise and waft a cool uplifting breath of escape.
Yours Jess, most of all.
The box fan sans book ban respite you gave your students allowing them physical relief, intellectual and emotional exploration, is the oasis in this vast and bleak desert.
The agenda for the banners is always consciously distorted. If they genuinely sought to protect children, they would OPEN the array of books so that children could read, digest, and consider future implications of these alleged threats. Denying the topics exist is as effective as denying climate change is undermining those living on coast lines.
Wow. Another terrific essay. A tragedy for sure, and I so admire you for drawing attention to St. Joseph and other more rural towns. I have never visited Missouri. I believe you once had a good Senator from your state, Claire McCaskill, who I enjoy watching on MSNBC. As for the banning of books, it’s another terrible tragedy. Why must folks always try to control what other folks are doing? What happened to the watchwords of liberty and freedom they like to toss around?
Thank you, friend.
Banning books is a way of teaching hate. When I taught school, I repeatedly encouraged my students (1st & 2nd graders) to treat others the way they wanted to be treated. Those folks who peddle hate handicap children.
As the slogan on one of my T-shirts states: "If your heart is full of hate, you are doing life wrong"
Nailed it, Jess. Many of these people are brought in from out of town . Up here in Iowa, a local school here brought in people from "Moms for Liberty" to help make their case for removing books. They trotted out the whole "litterboxes in restrooms" and "furries" argument that's been thoroughly debunked. That town's library enacted a rule that only those who lived in the town the library served were allowed to submit objections to materials. There's a concerted effort by Christian nationalists to "erase" certain people from our society. Shove them back into the closet, if you will. LGBTQIA+, Blacks, Hispanic/Latino, even women of any kind or race. They don't want kids to learn about slavery, the Holocaust, Civil Rights movement, etc. Anyone who pays attention can see what they're trying to do, starve public schools so the ones left are only serving the kids private schools won't take: the poor, disabled, those with emotional or behavioral issues, learning plans, special needs, etc. I suspect the trend to roll back child labor laws so younger children can work more dangerous jobs also has something to do with it. It's sickening. They also hate it when someone calls books "banned." Even though something not allowed in a specific space is banned from that space. I've been reading and buying as many removed/banned books as I can get that I haven't already read. It's easy to see why they targeted the books, but if you ask them to explain to you why, they can't. Ask them if they've even read the book, they dodge giving you a straight answer. Explain to them that poor kids need libraries for access to books and they still say anyone can just go out and buy books they succeed in getting removed. They ignore the fact that those kids who use those spaces shouldn't have to buy a book they want to read when they can easily check it out of their local library.
Also not every library has every book. I was looking for what I thought was an important book on an online library in Oregon and they didn't have it. I am an adult and I can't afford to buy every book I'd like to read. That's just stupid.
Jane, I live in a small town in Kentucky. Our library is pitiful compared to the ones available to people in larger cities. But I can order any book I want to read, and they will find it for me in-state for free or out-of-state for a small postage charge. Maybe Oregon has the same service. Readers Unite!!
Correct that not every library has every book. But there are clear patterns as to which books are being targeted, and they're books found in most libraries, whether school, public or both.
Anyone who can afford to buy and contribute a book I bet your small town library would be happy to have it.
This has been an effective way to fight back in other places, too: "That town's library enacted a rule that only those who lived in the town the library served were allowed to submit objections to materials."
Yes, the town near me that I cited did just that.
I'm glad they did and that it worked. I hope other towns struggling with this issue learn and handle it quickly. Thank you for sharing the approach.
Yes
It's hard to believe that in this century and millenium there are people who still objectify others based on their circumstances or lifestyle. Needing to feel superior, I suppose, rather than putting their kids into the mix to learn about the entirety of humans.
Thank you for writing this so succinctly, people need to know where this book-ban nonsense is coming from.
I live in NC and they have expanded vouchers here and my family (above the $150k income level) now has access to more than 30% of these private school vouchers. We go to public school because it’s really great (I do write a lot of letters about how they could do with more money). But, if anyone, anywhere was going to get a “government handout” to help them pay for private school-I can’t think of any reason that it would be my family. Seriously, if they’re going to earmark money for private school- it needs to have an income cap. This is just a redistribution of wealth. The subsidies don’t actually cover the cost of private school, so the people who could possibly benefit most can’t access the benefit. And at my income level we should just write a check.
Thank you for that, Melissa. I have no children, although I raised a few for family members. I so agree with your comment. This is absolutely a redistribution of wealth. And it’s more going to the top, not distributing downward. The public schools, need to be uplifted and properly funded, not torn down by people who only seek to profit from their destruction. I am a product of the Missouri school system - from way back! It was an excellent system, the teachers were engaging, and the kids learned. I went on to attain a master’s degree. They used to be good schools. It is so sad to see this happening.
I don’t understand why school choice and banned books are lumped together here. Banning books is wrong. It’s all about control. What does that have to do with school choice? It’s not only the far right who want to expand education opportunities. That is too simplistic. School Choice will have many flaws and need many adjustments. NC is moving forward with School Choice, we will be a testing ground.
Vouchers are a sophisticated redistribution of wealth con/grift using hysteria (banned books, et.al.) to cull/convince parents to privatize their property tax dollars for a lottery chance their child will be accepted.
When property taxes are diverted from public to private schools, the per child $ investment via vouchers is three times greater than the per child $ investment in public schools.
School choice vouchers are a reallocation of taxpayer dollars from public schools to private, often unregulated and religious, entities for profit.
My tax dollars are reallocate to many things. All taxes are reallocation and redistribution of wealth. That's the system we have. Should we fight about all of our taxes that are going to things we don't agree with? Yes, regulation, accountability and transparency is needed wherever our tax dollars go. We all need to demand that.
Paula, I think it has a lot to do with school choice, like maybe..."see what propaganda public schools are feeding your kids" Use you neighbor's tax dollars to send your kids to "John the Baptist Christian academy for future MAGA leaders"
We should be afraid of every religious school or only John the Baptist schools? Are all private schools raising MAGA leaders? It's not that simple and we shouldn't be fear mongering.
I think the question is whether public money should be going to schools that teach a particular religious point of view. You do bring up some good points. Thanks for engaging in a rational discussion.
Also, spending public money on private schools takes money away from public education. My children attended both private and public, and received excellent educations from both. But public schools need to be here, and financially sound for the next generations to come.
Paula.
https://jesspiper.substack.com/p/bandits-and-banned-books/comments?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=post_viewer
This is an assessment of the School Voucher system in NC....As I suspected it is skewed towards religious schools and there is no accountability re how the voucher students are doing in these private schools and the schools can close whenever...they have no allegiance to any state law to stay open. Plus to date, the state has spent $158.5 million on the voucher program:...that's a lot of taxpaper money not going to the public schools ...and 98% of the vouchers are used for religious schools AND The North Carolina voucher program is well designed to promote parental choice, especially for parents who prefer religious education for their children. It is poorly designed, however, to promote better academic outcomes for children and is unlikely to do so over time.
The public has no information on whether the students with vouchers have made academic progress or have fallen behind.
Those are just some of the salient facts in this report.
BTW I am very active in turning NC Blue this year so interact with a lot of people and groups on the ground. If your goal is to put more children in religious schools at the expense of the NC taxpayers you have achieved that. Do not be mislead that this is simply a program to help people afford a private education for their children...that is, unless they are seeking a private religious education for your children.
Paula…the impetus behind school vouchers is to deplete the public schools of financing and have that money go into private school, many that are religious schools and non integrated.Poorer people cannot afford to send their children to private school even with a voucher and many of these schools being”private” can reject any student they don’t want and not give a reason. why should public funds be used for private schools? Children should be entitled to go to good public schools where there s diversity and excellence…diminishing public schools is just another way of enforcing hate and bigotry and intolerance….and leaving the less monetarily fortunate with sub standard educations . You may recall it is what bigoted whites did in the south when integration in public schools became mandatory …which only fostered more bigotry and hate towards Black Americans.
Gail, In NC the impetus behind School Choice is not to close public schools and funnel money to religious or non-integrated schools as you have stated. Children are already entitled to go to public schools. They will continue to have that choice. School Choice does not mean all funds go to private religious organizations. There are other options with School Choice, traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, private schools, online learning, homeschooling, special needs schools, micro-schooling, and mix-and-match learning. Traditional public schools should not have a monopoly on childhood education for children K-12. Public schools should not be afraid of competition if they are truly "good public schools".
Private schools aren’t held accountable the way that public schools are. It varies by location. Generally
• Private schools can discriminate and reject students, public schools cannot.
• Private schools aren’t required to accommodate handicapped students in the same way as public schools are. Funding for public schools is based on enrollment. Money can be distributed to the private school when the handicapped student starts out there, but not returned to the public school when the student returns to the public school because the private school couldn’t accommodate the student’s handicap.
• The curriculum in private schools isn’t subject to the same scrutiny as
public schools are.
Proponents of vouchers for private schools make it sound sexy but, as with many things, the devil is in the details. Starving public schools of money is a big goal of the supporters of school vouchers. They can deny it all they want, but it’s true. Betsy DeVos is a big supporter of private schools and has done a lot of harm to public schools in Michigan.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/08/a-sobering-look-at-what-betsy-devos-did-to-education-in-michigan-and-what-she-might-do-as-secretary-of-education/
Driving 15 minutes across the Mississippi River to travel to work each day in Missouri from Illinois feels like landing in a foreign nation sometimes. I live in an old river town in IL becoming increasingly conservative. Yet, each one of the books you listed has been on display in my child's high school library this year...with not one complaint. Our governor banned banning books. My town has lots of kids living in poverty. There's addiction. Factories closed in the '80s and the effects are still widely apparent. We share so much commonality with our brethren right across the river. Yet, there still seems to be some kind of intrinsic value we still place on books, diversity (our area is almost 40% black and mixed race), and learning. That value, though, is incredibly tenuous and I see glimpses of MAGA seeping in. I only hope we're strong enough to keep it at bay.
I don’t believe all religious people are fascists. But the Christofascists who continually try to force our society to accept their version of what America should be, must be stopped.
Not all Christians are fascists, but all ChristoFascists are Christians I guess.
I agree. I am not anti-Christianity, but I am greatly opposed to those who want to force American society to conform to their particular religious beliefs.
Not really.
My last ten years as an educator I was the librarian of a K-5 in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. Our free or reduced lunch rate was 93-95%, depending on the day you counted. Our population was 45% urban Black and 45% rural white when I started, and the Hispanic population grew over the years. In the fall 2017 I was forced to retire because I insisted on running the library by American Library Association standards. But I left behind a collection that represented ALL my kids much more than it did when I arrived. Jess, thank you for lifting up school librarians. They are in great need of vocal allies.
Very few things anger me more than the banning of books.
It is abundantly clear that the people who ban books do not recognize THEY are violating the First Amendment! (Perhaps if they read more, they would know this! 😉)
For the last 20 years, I have worked in educational publishing—specifically K12 science curriculum. It’s usually the people who do not have students in a district who will complain about the content of the books. Evolution is scandalous! Children do not need to know the specifics of one another’s anatomy. Climate change is a myth! Don’t you dare put any of that “woke” S.E.L. indoctrination in a Teacher Guide.
The voucher programs are one of the biggest frauds run by GOP supermajority states. We have this issue in Indiana too. Every year I write to, call my state level lawmakers, and make my displeasure known about the program and the money it steals from public education.
Book bans are their own tragedy. The people who are organizing them are working to destroy public education too. This is all a way to privatize education too, so only the privileged can afford it.
Hear, hear!!! 👏👏👏
There is a book for everyone. Trust librarians and teachers.
Hear, hear!!! 👏👏👏
Yes
Oh God, this is hard to read. What lights me up is you don’t see anything approaching a comparable level of concern about the effects of poverty on the lives of these children. You don’t have powerful people campaigning against that on behalf of the school. Poverty is fine and tolerable and likely the natural order of thjngs, right? You just have — after years of complaining about liberal authoritarianism and intolerance at universities — people who aren’t in classrooms, who aren’t in schools, shoving their agenda about *books* down everyone’s throats. They don’t care about the children and they’d never have cared about what the children were reading if their agenda hadn’t directed them to.
It’s all so hollow and false and detrimental to students who already have so much stacked against them, I can’t stand it!
My first job out of law school was as a staff attorney at the St. Joe office of Legal Aid of Western Missouri. So, your description fits the town I remember. I’m so sorry to hear about the current crisis over book banning in the public schools.
I stand with the banned! Reading is fundamental. Thank you for writing about what is happening right under all our noses. We need to put our differences aside and stand together for what is right.
In a story framed in a dismal environment, populated by battered souls forgotten by politicians and community, small glimpses of humanity rising above the bleakness of sweltering oppressive heat and domination arise and waft a cool uplifting breath of escape.
Yours Jess, most of all.
The box fan sans book ban respite you gave your students allowing them physical relief, intellectual and emotional exploration, is the oasis in this vast and bleak desert.
🙏🏻
Petty, vengeful, spiteful control freaks. Thank you for covering this.
THE Maggat crowd are notoriously illiterate or barely literate. We should be teaching them to ACTUALLY READ.
Agreed👍
The agenda for the banners is always consciously distorted. If they genuinely sought to protect children, they would OPEN the array of books so that children could read, digest, and consider future implications of these alleged threats. Denying the topics exist is as effective as denying climate change is undermining those living on coast lines.
Thanks for writing this article.