NC HB315

Have you seen this bill? 


115C-102.60. The bill lays out that 1) districts must have an MTAC committee, and 2) exactly who must be on the committee. There is a presumption that 1) we don't have district level MTACs and 2) we don't have a clue who to include. 

The fact that most districts do have some committee to meet this criteria is ignored. AND the fact that the district committee is the 2nd step of a challenge - not the first - is also ignored. The first step is the MTAC committee at the school level of which I saw no mention. In reality - that's the true 2nd step, because the first is the school librarian! A position that is also ignored in all this verbiage. 

115C-102.65. The establishment of a state level MTAC to which materials can be appealed. My biggest concern here is the presumption that the state can make any decisions that will understand the needs of any two schools within a district or any two districts across the state. I have a hard time with the equity of grade level standards from poor schools to affluent schools. How could this possibly work with books. We as librarians know that two families in the same school have very different takes on what books should be on our shelves.  I do not see this playing out well at the state level. 

At the top of the bill is this information:
  • HOUSE BILL 315  
  • Short Title: Instructional Material Selection. (Public)
  • Sponsors: Representatives Elmore, Arp, and Johnson (Primary Sponsors).
  • For a complete list of sponsors, refer to the North Carolina General Assembly web site. 



This, IMHO, is the time that all of us in school libraries (and all educators,  parents, other librarians, etc.) should write to the bill sponsors and OUR reps to make our thoughts known on this. 

Bitsy

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