The stage is set in the Oregon Legislature for a final showdown over a bill that would prohibit removing or declining to carry books from school libraries solely because they are written by diverse authors or contain themes about race, gender, LGBTQ+ issues and other groups protected from discrimination under Oregon law.
This week, members of the House Education Committee sent Senate Bill 1098 — which has drawn reams of passionate public feedback over the course of the legislative session — to the House floor for a vote, the final hurdle before it would reach Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk.
During last year’s short session, a similar bill passed the Senate but died in committee after furious debate.
This year’s bill has proven similarly divisive. On Wednesday, it passed out of the House Education Committee with support from four Democrats and opposition from three Republicans.
Under Senate Bill 1098, only a student caregiver or district employee who wanted to see books and other materials taken out of classrooms or school libraries could request to do so, and then only in writing, a provision designed to prevent outside interest groups from orchestrating campaigns to object to the same book in multiple districts, the bill’s sponsors have said. That request would then need to be reviewed by a district committee, following guidelines that would be set by the Oregon Department of Education and the state Board of Education.
The proposal, sponsored by state Sen. Lew Frederick, a Portland Democrat, comes as Oregon is experiencing a big spike in the number of books and other materials challenged at schools and public libraries over the last year, according to a 2024 report from the Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse.
Between July 2023, and July 2024, individuals requested that 150 books and other documents, the majority of them young adult books and graphic novels, be removed or put in age-restricted sections in libraries, according to the report from the clearinghouse, which is affiliated with the State Library of Oregon.
The three most frequently challenged titles were Susan Kuklin’s “Beyond Magenta”, Mike Curato’s “Flamer” and Alice Oseman’s “Heartstopper” series. All three involve LGBTQ+ themes.
State Rep. Emily McIntire, an Eagle Point Republican, made a last ditch effort to convince her colleagues to let the proposal die in committee, after they’d declined to support an amendment she offered that she said would ensure that only age-appropriate books could be found in school libraries.
“We are putting politics into our classrooms. We are using our children in this political game,” she said.
But committee chair Zach Hudson, a Troutdale Democrat, said age appropriateness should not be conflated with nondiscrimination.
“What we are doing with the bill is preventing discriminatory choices in education materials,” he said.
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