In some Iowa communities, a bookmobile is the only library a child will ever visit. House File 2324 would end that.
I am writing as your constituent in [City/Town] to ask you to vote no on House File 2324.
This bill would sever school-library partnerships, bar students from using school IDs to check out books, and close schoolhouse doors to bookmobiles. These losses will fall hardest on children in rural communities where distance and poverty already limit opportunity. These arrangements are not radical — they are the proven ways Iowa communities have expanded learning for generations.
Supporters may call this a parental rights bill. It is the opposite. Today, parents can consent to or decline their child’s participation in school-library programs. That choice belongs to each family. This bill does not protect that right — it eliminates it by making the decision for every Iowa family, regardless of their wishes.
The bill also puts taxpayers at risk. Federal courts have already restrained portions of Iowa Senate File 496 for failing constitutional standards, at real cost to this state. House File 2324 extends the same vague language to public libraries, inviting another round of costly, avoidable litigation.
Iowa’s commitment to open libraries runs deep. In 1938, a Des Moines library director drafted the principles that became the Library Bill of Rights. That heritage is worth defending.
Please vote no on House File 2324. Let us not erect barriers where bridges have long stood.
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