A new era of book banning in Iowa?

State policymakers might be kicking a hornet's nest on their mission to restrict “obscene” material in Iowa schools.

Republican legislators are taking aim at books and other media they say amount to “hard-core pornography.” They run the risk of ushering in a new era of frivolous book challenges that will distract from the real issues facing Iowa school districts.

At the Statehouse, lawmakers are moving forward with at least three bills dealing with this perceived issue. The Senate Education Committee has advanced two bills affirming the parental right to information about curriculum. Much worse is a bill to create a misdemeanor crime for educators who allow students to access prohibited material, which was approved 2-1 along party lines by a Senate subcommittee last week.

At her Condition of the State address last month, Gov. Kim Reynolds said schools should be required to publish their teaching materials and parents “should have a timely process to address their concerns.”

School curricula already are required to be transparent and districts already have mechanisms for vetting challenges. If that needs to be clarified or better enforced, that’s one thing but it’s a whole other thing to threaten criminal penalties against teachers and administrators. These are solutions in search of problems.

Cedar Rapids schools recently considered a challenge. The system seemed to work just fine.

A Kennedy High School language arts class watched an excerpt of the 2009 film “Watchmen,” which depicts sex, violence and drugs. The Instructional Materials Reconsideration Committee affirmed that the specific portion of the film had educational value but also directed teachers to update the opt-in permission slip already in use to be more specific about the content.

Since such challenges are rare in Cedar Rapids, officials are able to give them due consideration. We hope this latest hubbub doesn’t lead to a situation where committees are flooded with claims, perhaps by people who don’t even send their kids to school here.

Much of the content lawmakers say they want to crack down on is written by or focuses on LGBTQ people. Some of the books describe sexual activity among young people, but only as part of broader stories about other themes. It likely does not rise to the current legal definition of obscenity, which holds that the material must be considered as a whole and must lack literary or artistic value.

We worry that what politicians are really trying to do with these brash statements and proposals is rile up reactionary sentiment in an effort to signal which side they’re on in these divisive cultural and social debates. What they’re not doing is promoting good education policy.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com