By Andrew Carswell
The bill for Florida’s book banning battle is rising, with no end in sight.
According to NBC News, Florida ranks first in the country for the sheer volume of book titles prohibited in public school libraries, as documented by the American Library Association and the advocacy group PEN America..
The Escambia County School Board has spent almost half a million dollars fighting to defend themselves from multiple lawsuits regarding the removal of certain books from school libraries and classrooms.
One of the lawsuits has cost the district $107,000 and centers around a book called And Tango Makes Three.
This book is based on two actual male penguins that successfully raised a baby penguin chick, when all three lived at the Central Park Zoo.
Perhaps they were inspired by the 1980’s classic movie, “3 Men and A Baby,” an iconic film where bachelors Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg and Tom Selleck raise an infant found on their doorstep, also set in New York City.
No matter your stance on male penguins raising penguin chicks, or “3 Men and A Baby” being a classic film, smart folks on both sides of the debate are shocked when they see the money that is being spent trying to figure this out, and many people are thinking that this money could be better spent.
In Polk County, these book bans come with a hefty price tag. The county has allocated significant resources to review, challenge, and defend the removal of several books that have been in our schools for decades.
Interestingly, while these lawsuits have sprung up fairly recently, the books in question are nothing new, and have in many cases, been there forever.
In the case of And Tango Makes Three, it has been in our schools for almost twenty years, being first published in 2005.
I’ve talked to people on both sides, but most people agree that the legal costs associated with defending these book bans could have been used to update aging textbooks, fund after-school programs, or even—dare we say—give teachers a much-needed raise.
And it’s not just about And Tango Makes Three. Other books involved in the lawsuits include books like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, which won the Nobel Prize, and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.
The Florida Department of Education proudly touts its commitment to fiscal responsibility. Yet, somehow, that commitment doesn’t seem to extend to the legal fees piling up like overdue library books.
Escambia County’s half-million-dollar tab is just the beginning. Add in Polk County, St. Johns, Miami-Dade, and others, and the statewide cost of this legal fight is staggering.
Meanwhile, Florida’s per-student funding sits at around $9,205 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, a figure that sounds impressive until you realize how much of it gets diverted to legal fees, instead of classrooms. Imagine what that money could do if it were spent on STEM programs, mental health services, or arts education.
Many Floridians care much more about these issues than they do about two dude penguins raising a penguin chick in New York City.
Unfortunately, legal proceedings often drag on for years, and we don’t have any idea when this will end. There are also administrative costs, and school staff pulled from their regular duties to serve on review committees, costing time and money that could otherwise support student learning.
Another problematic piece of this is the direct negative impact it is having on our teachers. Classroom teachers and administrators are caught in the middle of this huge battle, and don’t know how to feel, what to say to kids, or what to do.
Many teachers report feeling pressured to self-censor, fearing legal repercussions for inadvertently violating vaguely worded policies.
And to make it even worse, most of these lawsuits often end in settlements that require the books to be returned to library shelves.
So, not only are we spending money to fight these battles, but we’re also losing them. It’s like paying for an expensive dinner you didn’t even get to eat, or a new car that you never get to drive, or buying an old VHS copy of “3 Men and A Baby,” when you have no VCR to play it on.
No matter how you feel about these particular book titles, or male penguins, we should all realize that these continued legal battles are hurting the very people that we are supposed to be protecting – our children.
Politicians are profiting from it, politically, on both sides of the aisle, and law firms in Florida are making millions of dollars on all of the legal battles, but what is it costing our schools, our students, and how can we do better ?
Andrew Carswell is a writing professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville.
By Andrew Carswell
The bill for Florida’s book banning battle is rising, with no end in sight.
According to NBC News, Florida ranks first in the country for the sheer volume of book titles prohibited in public school libraries, as documented by the American Library Association and the advocacy group PEN America..
The Escambia County School Board has spent almost half a million dollars fighting to defend themselves from multiple lawsuits regarding the removal of certain books from school libraries and classrooms.
One of the lawsuits has cost the district $107,000 and centers around a book called And Tango Makes Three.
This book is based on two actual male penguins that successfully raised a baby penguin chick, when all three lived at the Central Park Zoo.
Perhaps they were inspired by the 1980’s classic movie, “3 Men and A Baby,” an iconic film where bachelors Ted Danson, Steve Guttenberg and Tom Selleck raise an infant found on their doorstep, also set in New York City.
No matter your stance on male penguins raising penguin chicks, or “3 Men and A Baby” being a classic film, smart folks on both sides of the debate are shocked when they see the money that is being spent trying to figure this out, and many people are thinking that this money could be better spent.
In Polk County, these book bans come with a hefty price tag. The county has allocated significant resources to review, challenge, and defend the removal of several books that have been in our schools for decades.
Interestingly, while these lawsuits have sprung up fairly recently, the books in question are nothing new, and have in many cases, been there forever.
In the case of And Tango Makes Three, it has been in our schools for almost twenty years, being first published in 2005.
I’ve talked to people on both sides, but most people agree that the legal costs associated with defending these book bans could have been used to update aging textbooks, fund after-school programs, or even—dare we say—give teachers a much-needed raise.
And it’s not just about And Tango Makes Three. Other books involved in the lawsuits include books like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, which won the Nobel Prize, and Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley.
The Florida Department of Education proudly touts its commitment to fiscal responsibility. Yet, somehow, that commitment doesn’t seem to extend to the legal fees piling up like overdue library books.
Escambia County’s half-million-dollar tab is just the beginning. Add in Polk County, St. Johns, Miami-Dade, and others, and the statewide cost of this legal fight is staggering.
Meanwhile, Florida’s per-student funding sits at around $9,205 for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, a figure that sounds impressive until you realize how much of it gets diverted to legal fees, instead of classrooms. Imagine what that money could do if it were spent on STEM programs, mental health services, or arts education.
Many Floridians care much more about these issues than they do about two dude penguins raising a penguin chick in New York City.
Unfortunately, legal proceedings often drag on for years, and we don’t have any idea when this will end. There are also administrative costs, and school staff pulled from their regular duties to serve on review committees, costing time and money that could otherwise support student learning.
Another problematic piece of this is the direct negative impact it is having on our teachers. Classroom teachers and administrators are caught in the middle of this huge battle, and don’t know how to feel, what to say to kids, or what to do.
Many teachers report feeling pressured to self-censor, fearing legal repercussions for inadvertently violating vaguely worded policies.
And to make it even worse, most of these lawsuits often end in settlements that require the books to be returned to library shelves.
So, not only are we spending money to fight these battles, but we’re also losing them. It’s like paying for an expensive dinner you didn’t even get to eat, or a new car that you never get to drive, or buying an old VHS copy of “3 Men and A Baby,” when you have no VCR to play it on.
No matter how you feel about these particular book titles, or male penguins, we should all realize that these continued legal battles are hurting the very people that we are supposed to be protecting – our children.
Politicians are profiting from it, politically, on both sides of the aisle, and law firms in Florida are making millions of dollars on all of the legal battles, but what is it costing our schools, our students, and how can we do better ?
Andrew Carswell is a writing professor at Florida State College at Jacksonville.