Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

We Fixate on Book ‘Bans,’ But It’s Time to Scrutinize Acquisitions

by October 25, 2023
October 25, 2023
We Fixate on Book ‘Bans,’ But It’s Time to Scrutinize Acquisitions

Neal McCluskey

Last week my new Policy Analysis on public school library holdings was published. A major reason I wrote it was that it felt to me that over the last few years Americans had been expending a huge amount of energy on books challenged in libraries while basically ignoring how books are selected.

To check if my feeling was amiss, CEF’s crack research team looked at all of the “reading material” conflicts on the Public Schooling Battle Map, determining how many focus on items already stocked or assigned in schools, and how many are about materials not yet acquired. The former swamp the latter: 556 conflicts are over material already in schools versus five district fights over acquisitions – and those mainly about processes, not specific books or other items – and twelve state conflicts over legislation prohibiting certain acquisitions.

Note that battles categorized as “curriculum” were not counted, but many probably would incorporate prohibiting books. Also, if proposed district policies examining acquisitions led to no disagreements, we did not catalog them. Finally, as always with the Map, if conflicts occurred but were not reported in the media, or were reported but escaped our notice, they are not on the Map.

So these numbers are likely rough approximations of what’s happening, but they support my basic conclusion: People have been focusing much more on challenging stocked books than on possible acquisitions.

This seems illogical. People should want to know what is being purchased, and why, in the first place, not wait to see what eventually hits shelves and then fight over it. At the very least, it is a waste of money to buy books only to see them removed.

But there is a major reason people focus on the back end instead of the front. As my paper discusses, the acquisition process is opaque. It is often unclear who is in charge of selecting books – school boards? superintendents? librarians? – and how they decide which books are worthy and which are not. Acquisition processes have also rarely been examined by researchers.

If ever there were a time to start assessing acquisitions, this is it. Based on the Battle Map collection, the last three years have seen big increases in conflicts, likely spurred by overall frustration with the COVID-19 pandemic that struck in 2020, as well as ongoing demographic, social, and political transformations. Notably, the number of battles in 2020 was small, but that was because the national education debate was dominated by how to attend school at all.

Of course, what these battles emphasize is that no one system can satisfy all people with diverse values and needs. Diving deeper into the acquisitions process would likely highlight the same, inescapable reality.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
The United States Remains a Manufacturing Powerhouse
next post
Is Freedom of Expression Dangerous? No, Study Finds More Expression Helps Us Handle Conflict

You may also like

An Ama(i)zing Quote from the US on Mexico’s...

November 27, 2023

Six Reforms to Enhance Transparency and Fiscal Accountability...

January 31, 2024

Three Scenarios for Turkey’s Election: The Good, the...

May 8, 2023

Benjamin M. Anderson: Hayek’s Precursor on the Knowledge...

November 18, 2024

North Carolina Passenger Rail Project May Cost $70...

December 15, 2023

Questioning the Housing Crisis: Americans Regularly Move to...

December 23, 2024

Repeal the Debt Ceiling

May 12, 2023

The Costs of Mask Mandates

September 9, 2024

President Biden’s Proposed Budget

March 11, 2024

New Cato Briefing Paper Warns of President’s Unilateral...

October 10, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Trump’s Debanking Order Calls for Investigation, Something Tennessee Should Have Done

      August 7, 2025
    • $93 million in aid to fight malnutrition headed to 12 African countries, Haiti, State Dept says

      August 7, 2025
    • $93 million in aid to fight malnutrition headed to 12 African countries, Haiti, State Dept says

      August 7, 2025
    • America’s Not-So-Secret Secret Police

      August 7, 2025
    • Poll: Nearly 1 in 4 Americans Think They Have a Personal Social Security Account

      August 7, 2025
    • Republican senator claims RFK Jr. mRNA vaccine decision undermines Trump agenda

      August 7, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (8,704)
    • Investing (2,185)
    • Politics (16,335)
    • Stocks (3,228)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved