TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida bill filed earlier this month could impose fees on those who make too many objections to books in public schools.
On Tuesday, lawmakers in a Florida House committee voted for a massive public education bill — HB 7025. Among its provisions, the bill allows school districts to impose a $100 “processing fee” for failed book challenges.
Recommended Videos
The fee could only be used if the involved resident doesn’t have a student enrolled in the school where the resident is objecting to certain materials.
In addition, the fee would only be assessed if five objections have already been made by the resident during that calendar year.
[EXCLUSIVE: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s FREE) | PINIT! Share your photos]
That means each additional objection that is upheld could receive a $100 fee.
The bill originally allowed school districts to levy the fees in all instances, but on Tuesday the committee changed the provision to only impose the fees on challenges where the school failed to remove the book in the end.
The issue of objections to books and other materials in Florida schools has been a controversial one, with House Bills 1069 and 1467 being passed within the last two years.
Those laws give the public the ability to object to materials found in these schools that could be considered “pornographic, harmful to minors, or describe or depict sexual conduct.”
As a result, hundreds of books were removed from the shelves of certain school districts. Over half the objections came from Clay and Escambia counties.
The bill is now headed to the Florida House for a full vote.
The bill is meant to mirror one of the public school deregulation bills passed in the Florida Senate earlier this month. However, none of those bills have the book objection fee in them. So that would have to be reconciled before the bills pass the Florida Legislature.
If approved, HB 7025 would go into effect on July 1.
Get today’s headlines in minutes with Your Florida Daily: