In Iowa, Senate Study Bill 1145 would require the Department of Education to keep a list of all books banned by each and every school district in the State. Then, every school district in the State would be required to get a parent’s permission before granting any student access to any book on that State-wide list. That means any one school district could restrict access to books at every other school district in the State! That is just wrong.
Most Republicans used to be in favor of keeping governance as close to the people as reasonably possible. I guess not anymore. I agree that there are very good and proper reasons for keeping certain books out of schools, but local district school boards are best left to make those decisions, not the State and not some other district school board! In addition to being a bad policy, it would be quite costly for both individual school districts and the State of Iowa to comply with such a law.
Libertarian Perspectives 