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Friday, March 31st, 2023

Missouri Reps Just Voted to Completely Defund the State’s Public Libraries

Author:     Claire Woodcock
Source:     Vice News
Publication Date:     March 30, 2023 | 8:37am
 Link: Missouri Reps Just Voted to Completely Defund the State’s Public Libraries
Stephan:  

How insecure, how fearful of reality, do you have to be to deliberately sabotage public libraries? It says I do not want to educate, I want to indoctrinate, and I am afraid of the truth. The people of Missouri are going to have to decide the nature of their society. They have to want wellbeing over fears, resentments, and hates. That's how democracy defends itself.

Monroe City, Missouri Public Library

Late Tuesday night, the Missouri House of Representatives voted for a state operating budget with a $0 line for public libraries. While the budget still needs to work its way through the Senate and the governor’s office, state funding for public libraries is very much on the chopping block in Missouri. 

This comes after Republican House Budget Chairman Cody Smith proposed a $4.5 million cut to public libraries’ state aid last week in the initial House Budget Committee hearing, where Smith cited a lawsuit filed against Missouri by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri (ACLU-MO) as the reason for the cut. 

ACLU-MO filed the suit on behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association (MLA) in an effort to overturn a state law passed in 2022 that bans sexually explicit material from schools. Since it was first enacted in August, librarians and other educators have faced misdemeanor charges punishable by up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine for giving students access to books the […]

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1 Comment

  1. Rev. Dean on Friday, March 31, 2023 at 10:12 pm

    Libraries are essential to a vibrant economy because children need to have them to explore the essential books they need to learn while they are in school.