Minnesota legislation targets book banning

(KNOX) – Governor Tim Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan visited a school in St. Paul Thursday to highlight legislative efforts to prevent books bans based on ideology.

With more than 1,400 instances of books banned in the first half of the 2022-23 school year across the U.S., proposed legislation would ensure such restrictions don’t happen in Minnesota.

Senate file 3567 would prohibit book bans in public and school libraries based on content or ideological objections.

Additionally, it would require the book and material collection decisions of a library to be made or overseen by a licensed library media specialist, a person with a master’s degree in library and information sciences, or a professional librarian or person with extensive library collection management experience.