Education is an important institution in American society. While it may not be funded like such, it really is vital to our society’s continued existence. It encourages students to use their brains, to think critically about their lives, and to learn knowledge that is at least sometimes needed in the labor market. Ron DeSantis surely knows all of this, and his response when asked about this would probably just be “don’t call me Shirley.” You see, Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, is developing a reputation as what I’ll politely call a control freak. This authoritative set of tendencies has played out before, such as when he shipped 50 Venezuelan migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last time, and now, we are seeing some draconian measures implemented in Florida schools. This entry seeks to examine several of these policies and examine what makes them so ridiculous, authoritarian, and frankly counter-productive, even by the standards of American K-12 education. Here’s hoping we all can learn more about social issues in this entry alone than those poor Florida students ever will in their classrooms at this rate.

    In particular, the measures being implemented are that local school boards have been putting books “under review” for potential bans left and right. As a matter of fact, I’ve even read some of these books, and have one thing to say: Banning a book is usually not a good look. It basically amounts to censorship in certain situations, and trust me when I say that kids are exposed to far worse out of school and on the Internet. It’s gotten to the point where teachers and districts are often being forced to cover up classroom libraries, because God forbid a first-grader reads about a kid their age with two dads. God forbid a middle schooler reads a story involving a protagonist of color, or one who isn’t straight. God forbid a high-schooler reads The Hate U Give and learns about inequalities that do in fact persist in American society.

A lot of the complaints against these books are that they are “too sexual,” even if it’s just a typical teen story. I hate breaking it to these understandably concerned parents, but your kids probably already know about sex these days. Therefore, I have this question for the parents reading this. Would you rather your teenage high school student read Looking for Alaska by John Green or look up an adult film when you’re not with them one night? I’d say I’d prefer my child to read the John Green book, because they might as well get the right idea about sexuality if they somehow haven’t found out yet. 

There is also an element of marginalization inherent in book banning, and this is no different here. Whether the contentious issue is race or sexual orientation, there are several instances of books being blackballed for these reasons. On the issue of race and its impact on American history, The Bluest Eye and several other Toni Morrison novels have been wrongly thrown under the bus. Sure, The Bluest Eye, in particular, has a lot of heavy and possibly triggering content, but I honestly feel a content warning would be enough to deal with any concerns there. Sure, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas exists if an educator wants a more presently relevant book on racial issues, but that’s been getting bans too. Therefore, I suspect that it’s not just the explicit content that’s leading to these bans, despite what concerned parents would likely have to say.

No, I suspect that this is an attempt at subtly reinforcing discriminatory biases and systemic norms in childrens’ education. And this isn’t just happening in Florida, either. This has been a movement among conservative parents and associated interest groups for decades, and has really picked up steam in this present political climate. But what makes DeSantis and Floridian book bans particularly insidious is that he’s trying to position himself as the Republican 2024 frontrunner. If the Republicans pick him as their nominee for 2024, or even if he runs at all, book banning and other education-related culture war issues may find their way on the party platform. 

That might take this issue nationwide to a truly frightening extent, especially if national law changes to allow book bans to happen more easily. American education at the K-12 level is already lagging behind the rest of the Western world as well as the East Asian region, and this would only drag it down further. I acknowledge that the US News Best Countries Report looks upon American education fondly, that’s a survey of the general public, and doesn’t look at other empirical data. That data suggests that America is ranked 38th in math and 24th in science, while reading test scores have been roughly stagnant since 2000. That’s incredibly troubling, and I’d argue that the same books being banned are the ones propping up the medium and the very institution of American education.

Like it or not, these controversial books do one thing well: They get their young and especially adolescent audiences interested in literature. If that goes away thanks to DeSantis and book bans, an already poorly-informed country could get even less so, having dire consequences on both American global opportunities and our very democracy. Perhaps that’s what DeSantis wants, given his authoritarian tendencies in the eyes of many of his critics. I hope that isn’t the case, and I hope concerned conservative parents don’t continue to take the bait.