Banning books in Utah’s public schools comes with a hefty price tag, including the costs of purchasing copies for committees to review.
In the Davis School District alone, that cost topped $27,000 during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, according to records obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune.
Over those two years, the district reviewed around 100 titles. While not all were removed, they did ban the 13 books that are now prohibited in every public school across Utah.
That’s because, under a new law, local decisions can now lead to a book being banned from public schools statewide if at least three school districts (or at least two school districts and five charter schools) determine a book amounts to “objective sensitive material” — pornographic or otherwise indecent content, as defined by Utah code.
While the law took effect July 1, it applied retroactively to titles previously banned by individual districts. Over the summer, districts and charter schools were instructed to reevaluate the books they had already banned before that date, using the state’s new “objective sensitive” criteria, which had not been in place before.
These statewide removals were driven by just six of Utah’s 41 school districts. Davis and Washington County school districts banned every title on the list, accounting for one-third of the local decisions that led to the statewide bans.
Collectively, those two districts spent just over $29,000 reviewing and banning books during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, with Davis spending the bulk of that.
Here’s how those costs break down.
E-readers, stipends and more
Utah’s first-ever statewide banned book list includes works by such acclaimed authors as Judy Blume and Margaret Atwood, as well as popular fantasy romance writer Sarah J. Maas, whose books alone made up nearly half of the list, including the entire “A Court of Thorns and Roses” series.
Washington County School District spent $1,615.89 during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. That included $1,357.90 to purchase 10 Kindle Paperwhites (e-readers) and $257.99 for e-books to review, according to the records obtained, which did not provide additional details.
Davis spent significantly more. During those same years, the district spent a total of $27,405.65 to review and ban books. That includes $18,750 in stipends (during the 2022-23 school year only) and roughly $8,600 for books over both years.
The stipends break down as follows:
Teachers - $3,750.
Facilitators - $6,500.
Administrators - $4,500.
Librarians - $4,000.
The committee reviewed roughly 100 individual titles and purchased a combined total of copies, with the number of copies varying for each book. The books were purchased from either Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
The district spent nearly $980 to purchase copies for 11 of the 13 books banned from public schools statewide. The records provided to The Tribune did not include costs for “Forever” by Judy Blume and “A Court of Silver Flames” by Sarah J. Maas.
Why can books get banned statewide?
Only books determined to be “objectively sensitive” material are subject to the possibility of being removed statewide.
The Utah State Board of Education determines if a book has met the statewide removal threshold by having districts and charters fill out and submit a questionnaire.
The questionnaire prompts school districts or charter schools to select one to three reasons why they are deciding to classify a book as “objectively sensitive material” under the state’s new standards and ban it locally, according to records obtained by The Tribune.
The three reasons, as stated in the questionnaire, are that a book: 1) contains a description or depiction of “human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal”; 2) contains a description or depiction of “acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse, or sodomy”; and/or 3) contains a description or depiction of “fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals or [the] pubic region.”
More titles may be added to the statewide ban as they meet the criteria. However, the Utah State Board of Education does have the chance to intervene if they so choose.
Under the law, USBE members have 30 days from the moment a book’s statewide ban is instituted to potentially overturn it. To do so, “three or more” USBE leaders within that time frame must request that the material be placed on a board meeting agenda, so leaders can vote on the matter.
That time limit has already expired for the initial batch of banned books, as members chose not to exercise that option earlier this month.