UPDATE!!! 5/24/2023
As most know, HB 900 “The Reader Act” passed the Senate on 3 rd reading last night at midnight.
It’s on its way to the Governor. This is a huge win for Texas parents and all those brave enough
to send, show and read in school board meetings and Legislative hearings. We did it! Praise
God.
Highlights:
School districts must develop a book policy that prohibits the possession, acquisition
and purchase of harmful library materials, rated sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or
educationally unsuitable. This broad definition strengthens the bill.
It requires book vendors to rate their books if sexually explicit or sexually relevant if
they want to sell to school districts in Texas. If a vendor fails to comply or correct a
rating, Texas schools may not purchase books from that vendor. This is huge, because it
forces corporations profiting from harmful library materials to be accountable.
Due to the size and buying power of Texas, it has the ability to leverage its size to force
corporations to do the right thing. Historically, our leaders rarely make this stand. Let this be
just the beginning. This is model legislation that every state can replicate to protect children.
PLEASE DO YOUR PART! Click on link below!
HB 900 is the library book bill written to prohibit sexually explicit books in K-12 libraries and hold book vendors liable for rating content of the same. The bill passed the House with bipartisan support. It has been on the Senate calendar for 3 consecutive days, but has not been reached. The following link allows you to enter your identifying information and send a message to all the Senators and the Lt. Governor at the same time. It is very easy and very fast. Please take a minute and help push this bill to a vote.
https://grassrootspriorities.com/index.php?t=4&a=47