LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Former Arkansas senator and current Arkansas State Library Board member Jason Rapert is calling for state lawmakers to dissolve the board completely after Friday’s meeting.
Rapert claimed in an open letter posted on Facebook that, during the meeting, five members of the seven-member board refused to “take any action to promulgate policies or rules to protect minor children by withholding taxpayer funds from libraries unwilling to do something to protect kids from sexually explicit materials.”
Former Arkansas Sen. Jason Rapert appointed to state’s library board
The former senator also said that six of the eight people who spoke during public comment were in favor of the ASLB “protecting children from sexually explicit materials.” He noted that the other two who spoke were library employees.
“I implore the members of the Arkansas legislature to take action to abolish this board and turn over the authority to the Secretary of Education and the Department of Education, or at a minimum abolish the board and reconstitute it as we have done with other boards while I served in the Arkansas legislature,” Rapert said.