SW News: The American state of California has proposed a bill that penalizes school districts for banning books that contain inclusive and diverse perspectives. It was Assembly member Corey Jackson who authored the legislation.

Bill AB 1078 targets the local school board, preventing it from controlling the curriculum and books that are kept in the library. The bill was passed 5-2 after it was debated in the Senate Education Committee.

The move comes in the wake of a new report which says that almost 1,500 books were prohibited in the first half of the 2022-2023 school year. This was revealed by the PEN America’s Index of School Book Bans list. The report says that during the fall semester last year, there were more bans on books than in each of the two semesters before that. According to PEN America, 30 percent of the unique titles that were prohibited were books on racism, race, or characters of color. As much as 26 percent of titles had homosexual themes or characters.

The new legislation was supported by State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond who said, “Our students of color and our LGBTQ+ should not be threatened for their viewpoints and they should not have education withheld from them.” He added that although he favors local control, it does not give anyone the right to threaten, bully or mistreat any student.