Missouri Republicans Take Draconian Step That Would Hurt Libraries

While negotiating the state budget last week, Republicans in the Missouri House of Representatives voted to defund all state public libraries. As the bill moves to the Missouri Senate, public librarians are concerned about how the draconian measure would harm the communities they serve.

The attempt to completely defund public libraries actually began with Senate Bill 775, legislation that was intended to give more rights to survivors of sexual assault.

Republican State Senator Rick Brattin hijacked the bill and included an amendment that prohibited educators from “providing sexually explicit material” to students. As many similar proposals, the wording was broad and unclear. The bill was signed into law, and just a few months later, conservative parents began using it to target LGBTQ-themed books, smearing books about gender or sexual identity as “pornography.”

The new law led to 300 books being removed of schools across the state between last August and November, according to PEN America.

In February, the ACLU of Missouri, the Missouri Association of School Librarians, and the Missouri Library Association filed a lawsuit against the state, arguing that the ban violated the First Amendment.

Republicans decided to retaliate against the MLA, a nonprofit organization of professional librarians, for joining the lawsuit. His proposal: cut the $4.5 million allocated to public libraries each year.

“I don’t think we should fund that effort,” said Republican House budget chairman Cody Smith. saying. “We are going to get the financing and that’s why.”

But none of the professional organizations named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit receive state aid, which goes directly to libraries, and the ACLU of Missouri is paying for the lawsuit.

“They are choosing to punish librarians for exercising their right to question their government,” Katie Hill Earnhart, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Public Library, told HuffPost.

The books have become the target of conservatives’ wrath In recent years. As protests for racial justice swept the nation after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Republicans raised fears among white parents about what their children were learning about race in their classrooms. In recent months, conservative attention has shifted toward books with LGBTQ characters and themes.

The Missouri state government is constitutionally required to provide aid to public libraries, so the Republicans are unlikely to successfully defund all funds. But librarians are still concerned that drastic cutbacks may still occur, requiring some libraries to reduce services or close their doors.

“I think it’s more of a political statement to go completely to zero, but there’s a valid fear that there’s still going to be a significant cut,” Otter Bowman, president of the Missouri Library Association, told HuffPost. “There’s a heightened sense of urgency that this could be real.”

The amount of funding each library receives from the state varies, but no library would be immune from defunding or drastic cuts.

“My library would have received about $26,000, which is about 20% of our purchasing budget,” Earnhart said. “We would have to find surplus funds somewhere…or we would have to reduce the number of items we can buy.”

Earnhart said his library is lucky to have other sources of funding: If the state withdraws its funding, it won’t have to close its doors. Libraries in rural areas would not be so lucky.

“They don’t have the tax base that cities have,” Bowman said. “Rural libraries would have to cut hours, staff and their already minuscule collections.”

Libraries in these areas are often community centers that offer a variety of resources to residents, not just books for “woke” children, as conservatives tend to argue.

“There’s job assistance, computer access, passport applications, free tax help, warming and cooling centers for the homeless. We are doing much more than just putting out books,” Bowman said.

Bowman said he worries about the long-term impact of anti-library policies: The rush to pass new laws restricting the materials librarians can provide to patrons has led to a decline in people even wanting to join the profession.

“We like to serve people and obviously we weren’t in it for the money, but attacking us makes it very difficult to retain people,” he said.

It’s unclear how the Republican-controlled Senate will vote on the budget. In the past, such extreme bills were often seen as wishful thinking by far-right lawmakers. But in recent months, the culture wars have become top priorities for Republican lawmakers: Defunding the entire public library system is now a mainstream proposal.

Throughout the state, librarians are ready for whatever comes next.

“If we’re going to be cut off,” Bowman said, “we’re not going to go quietly.”