Attention Friends and all Children's Book Advocates:
Important message from Maggie Stern with the Children's Defense Fund. Consider coming to Austin to testify on December 13.
-Angela Valenzuela
#SayNoToCensorship
Attention advocates!
As you know, Texas is facing an ongoing fight against state-led book bans. The lawsuit against HB 900 was heard in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, and Texas officials faced heavy criticism for the law’s violations of the First and Fourteenth amendments. Despite these concerns, the State Board of Education is scheduled to vote on new proposed library collection standards next Wednesday December 13.
Contact the State Board of Education now!
We need you to advocate for best practices in our school libraries by urging the SBOE to approve the current proposed standards which provide a template for schools to create comprehensive and diverse libraries for their students. We need you to use your voice to tell the SBOE the impact these standards will have on Texas students and on the quality of education in our state.
We encourage you to contact your SBOE member with your thoughts on the proposed standards! We’ve created a resource with background on HB 900, talking points to help you draft an email, and a guide to finding your SBOE member here. We need every voice in Texas to stand firm on protecting students' access to libraries where they can see themselves reflected in the books they choose to read.
Bonus: We also encourage you to come to Austin to testify in-person during the public hearing on December 13. This is a great opportunity to use your voice to influence the course of public education! The deadline to register to testify is this Friday, December 8 at 5p. Feel free to use the talking points in the resource we created in your testimony – and reply to this email to let us know if you can come testify!
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