{"id":2378,"date":"2026-06-10T10:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2378"},"modified":"2026-06-10T10:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:04:26","slug":"mass-house-readies-vote-on-bill-aimed-at-curbing-book-bans-in-libraries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonrelocationinsider.com\/?p=2378","title":{"rendered":"Mass. House readies vote on bill aimed at curbing book bans in libraries"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Massachusetts senators championed an effort in November to curb book bans in the state, saying it would protect the civil rights of students, teachers, and librarians amid efforts, here and elsewhere, to target books about gender and race.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more The state of Team USA entering the World Cup: Americans should advance, but how far?<\/a><\/p>\n

It appears the whole of Beacon Hill is ready to rally behind the effort.<\/span><\/p>\n

MassachusettsHouse lawmakers are scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would standardize how books are added and removed from Massachusetts school libraries and prevent librarians from facing penalties for doing so. The legislation is nearly identical to what the Senate passedin the fall, all but clearing the measure\u2019s path to Governor Maura Healey\u2019s desk.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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House leaders and supporters of the bill are holding up the legislation as an effort to stave off years-long, Republican-led efforts to limit the content that children have access to in schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we got started with this a few years ago, we were disturbed by record-breaking attempts to ban materials in libraries, and the harassment of library staff around intellectual freedom issues,\u201d said Andrea Fiorillo, a Cambridge librarian who cochairs the Massachusetts Library Association\u2019s Intellectual Freedom and Social Responsibility Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMassachusetts has long led the nation in independence, and this actlays out our values in saying, \u2018We are going to think independently, and we are going to support the best education for our state,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last year, Massachusetts ranked sixth in the nation for both the number of reported challenges to library materials and the number of titles challenged, according to the American Library Association.<\/span><\/p>\n

The association\u2019s Office for Intellectual Freedom, which tracks book bans nationwide, said last year, 229 titles in Massachusetts faced challenges in libraries across the state, and 212 were ultimately either banned or relocated in the library.<\/span><\/p>\n

The House legislation, similar to the Senate version, would require schools to create policies that would outline how materials can be added and removed from their libraries to align with the American Library Association\u2019s standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

The legislation specifies that students would have a right to \u201creceive information, including but not limited to, school library materials determined to be educational and age-appropriate for inclusion in a school library.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill would also prevent librarians from losing their licenses or employees from being disciplined for selecting library materials. Under the bill, a book could only be removed from a school library if the school committee finds that it\u2019s \u201cdevoid of any educational, literary, artistic, personal or social value\u201d or is not \u201cage appropriate for any child\u201d who attends the school.<\/span><\/p>\n

That comes as Fiorillo said Massachusetts librarians in recent years have been doxxed, accused of unfounded crimes, and altered their programming or book selection to avoid public retribution.<\/span><\/p>\n

House Speaker Ron Mariano and state Representative Aaron Michlewitz, the chamber\u2019s budget chief, said in a statement that the bill \u201cprotects free expression and guards Massachusetts against Republican attempts to ban certain books.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Republican-led states such as Iowa and Florida have barred school libraries from including materials that include sexual content, prompting books to be pulled off shelves and spurring legal challenges from civil rights and free speech groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Massachusetts Family Institute, a conservative organization, has opposed the Massachusetts legislation, including a portion that would allow students and parents to legally challenge school committee decisions to remove library materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam Whiting, the group\u2019s general counsel, in November argued lawmakers were seeking to \u201cimpose a one-size-fits-all policy on every school district.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Fiorillo, however, said librarians have been especially alarmed to see the federal government \u201cbecome part of the movement\u201d since President Trump took office last year. In February, Republicans in the US Congress introduced legislation that would restrict schools from receiving federal funding if they housed \u201csexually oriented material\u201d outside of science coursework, classic literature or art works, and religious texts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Republicans have argued that certain materials are not appropriate for children under 18, building on a post-pandemic, so-called parental choice movement that parents should have more control over the materials their kids can access. <\/span><\/p>\n

State Representative John Moran, a Boston Democrat who sponsored a version of the legislation in the House, said in a statement that he was grateful to House leadership for advancing the legislation \u201cat a time when LGBTQ+ rights and the voices of Black and brown communities are under increasing attack by the Trump administration.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAs efforts to censor books increasingly come from organized pressure groups and government entities rather than individual readers or parents, these safeguards uphold Massachusetts values of intellectual freedom, access to information and representation for all,\u201d Moran said.<\/span><\/p>\n

State Senator Julian Cyr, a Provincetown Democrat who introduced the legislation in the Senate, said he did so after hearing \u201cdeep concerns\u201d from librarians and authors in the state \u201cabout attempts at censorship.\u201d The Senate has pointed to the bill as one of its signature efforts to respond to the Trump administration.<\/span><\/p>\n

The bill is one of several on which the House and Senate are starting to align ahead of July 31, the deadline for the Legislature to approve most legislation in formal sessions. Last week, the House unanimously passed a data privacy bill aimed at protecting consumers\u2019 digital data and restricting how companies can use it, following the Senate\u2019s approval of its ownversion in September. And in April, the House took up legislation to ban cellphones in K-12 schools, after the Senate did the same last July.<\/span><\/p>\n

House leaders said the book ban bill would be one of \u201cfour important pieces of legislation\u201d they would vote on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n

The chamber is also slated to pass a $227 million supplemental budget bill and two bills aimed at preventing worker injuries and protecting firefighters by regulating hot-work occupations such as welding, more than a decade after two Boston firefighters were killed fighting a Back Bay blaze that was ignited by sparks from welders.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Massachusetts House lawmakers are scheduled to vote Wednesday on a bill that would standardize how books are added and removed from Massachusetts school libraries and prevent librarians from facing penalties for doing so. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nMass. 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