Jacquelyn Benson

I am writing to oppose SB 33. 1) SB 33 is very similar to legislation that is currently subject to federal lawsuits in Florida and Iowa. By passing this bill before those cases are settled, NH is opening itself to potentially expensive litigation at a time where we're cutting programs due to limitations on state funds. This bill should be held back for study until the legal situation is more clear. 2) Alternatively, the state could pursue a more legally robust process for reviewing challenged library materials. This might look more like SB 208, which created a committee of stakeholders - including educators, librarians, elected officials, and other parents in the community - to give a fair and balanced review challenged books. This would provide a perfectly reasonable avenue for local parents to raise concerns about books in the library collection. Why aren't we doing that instead? 3) According to the American Library Association, 72% of book challenges in the US are initiated not by parents, but by special interest groups. This bill would facilitate those challenges. Do we really want outside interest groups to have the right to override local control and decide what NH's children have the right to read? The right to challenge books in local school libraries should be limited to parents with children in the district.