That may be your preference as to how it should be done, and I see no problem with that. But if your approach is constitutional, so is Florida's. The librarian is an agent of the same government that is controlled by the legislature. If he can decide what books get in and which don't, so can the legislature.

> A few states publish a recommended or approved list of books that the librarian chooses from.

Well isn't that exactly what FL did?

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nozzlegear 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Well isn't that exactly what FL did?

I'm not saying I agree with it, just listing all of the methods of selection (that I'm aware of) for accuracy. Personally I prefer the school board approach, so that the community can assert local control over the process rather than politicians trying to score points with national parties.

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dfxm12 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> A few states publish a recommended or approved list of books that the librarian chooses from.

Well isn't that exactly what FL did?

No.

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terminalshort 3 days ago | parent [-]

if (!banned_books.contains(book) { library.add(book) }

if (allowed_books.contains(book) { library.add(book) }

It's the same. (Well, not quite. Yours is much more restrictive.)

	▲	didibus 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Banning the books takes a stance against the books themselves. It's like an attack to the speech of the authors by the government. The government is openly opposing and calling them obscene. Simply recommending or mandating that a particular set of books should be made available is very different, that's in line with the role they should play here, which is to make sure that a good selection of books for pedagogy is made available to students. What's funny is, the "banned books" might have not even been available in any of the libraries to begin with. That shows the distinction. And finally, even the set of books they make available, it should reasonably look like an effort was made to select them based on an objective criteria of offering the best education. If it starts to feel like it wasn't done so in good faith, it's leaning on propaganda. The librarian, school board, governor, this applies to all of them, it's not their own personal selection of what they want the kids to learn. It's a set of books of their good faith effort at objectively offering the material that benefits the kids education best.