Pritzker signs law stripping funding from libraries that restrict access to controversial books

(The Center Square) – Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday signed into law a measure that withholds state funding from any of the state’s 1,600 public or school libraries that remove books from shelves.

Libraries that adhere to the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, which states that books should not be removed because of partisan or personal disapproval, will continue to get state funding.  

Alternatively, the State Librarian and State Library can work together to develop their own written statement declaring that every library or library system must provide an adequate collection of books and other materials to satisfy the people of Illinois.

Pritzker said there were 67 attempts to ban books in Illinois in 2022. The American Library Association said it has seen around 1,200 challenges to books over the past year, nearly double from the previous year.

“Book bans are about censorship, marginalizing people, marginalizing ideas and facts,” Pritzker said.

State Sen. Jason Plummer, R-Edwardsville, an outspoken critic of the law, said it is offensive to take away public funds from people whose taxes paid for the library grants and it takes away control from local officials.

“It allows unelected and unidentified, random people, some organization at the national level to set local policy and to usurp the authority of the local elected officials that our constituents voted into their position to make decisions on their behalf,” Plummer said.  

Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias disagrees that locals will lose control, saying local librarians “have the educational and professional experience to determine what’s in circulation. Let them decide.”

Giannoulias said he became involved after parents in Downers Grove complained to the school board about the book, “Gender Queer:  A Memoir,” by Maia Kobabe, which includes graphic sexual images. The board voted last spring to keep the book on the shelves.

Other Republicans have argued that the goal is to make sure books distributed in public schools and libraries are age appropriate.

The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2024.