The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District (MSBSD) recently announced it is dropping its established Library Collection Development Policy. This policy ensured that each family has the right to determine what their children read, and has procedures to follow when a book is challenged. Instead, the MSBSD is creating a new “districtwide library committee.” In the announcement and the application for this committee, there are no details about the composition of the committee or how members will be selected. The district is also vague on how the committee will review books or which books they might review. This new process could easily turn into a few parents or community members banning books for all students in the district.
It seems that the MSBSD has thrown away a perfectly good policy to start one that is ill-defined and possibly worse than the existing one. Parents already have the choice to decide what books their children read. They should not lose that right so that a small group is allowed to make the choice for all children.
— Lynn Lovegreen
Anchorage
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