Controversial books are nothing new, but the incidence of book challenges and bans has increased substantially in recent years.

This week marks the American Library Association's annual Banned Books Week and this year's theme is "Books Unite Us. Censorship Divides Us."

The ALA has conducted polling on the issue which illustrates that 71% of Americans oppose efforts to remove books from public libraries, and 67% oppose efforts to remove books from school libraries.

The executive director of the Ohio Library Council, Michelle Francis, said that while Ohio has not seen as many book challenges as other states the focus of librarians remains the same.

"We focus on the freedom to read," said Francis. "And in the state of Ohio for all of our public libraries that is something that we cherish and is very close to home when it comes to intellectual freedom. And we know that it is our job to make sure that we have something for everyone in our public libraries."

More information on the ALA's initiative to fight censorship is online at uniteagainstbookbans.org.

Within the ALA is the Office for Intellectual Freedom where they've been tracking book censorship for decades.

OIF Director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said organized political groups who advocate censorship are involved in efforts to influence school boards and library boards, sending motivated voices to speak to elected officials.

Office holders facing book challenges often end up listening to the people speaking out at public meetings, but when opponents of censorship make their voices heard things can go differently.

"When there are others in the room speaking out against censorship, speaking out in favor of having a wide variety of books available for young people to read, for the community to read," said Caldwell-Stone, "then we often see efforts to remove books fail."

Caldwell-Stone said writing an email to the library board or sending a letter with another supporter to be read at a meeting may also give busy people a way to make their voices heard.

Over her career, Caldwell-Stone said she has seen the kinds of books that are challenged expand.

She said books that contain profanity or coming of age stories with accounts of first sexual experiences have often been challenged, but in recent years challenges have taken on additional political dimensions.

"When you look at the books that are challenged," said Caldwell-Stone, "you're seeing books that have no sexual content at all but advance different narratives around our history with racism or the lives and experiences of LGBTQIA persons."

The ALA estimates between 82% and 97% of book challenges go unreported.

This story was produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.

Illinois high school seniors have new hurdles to overcome to get to college. High school students are waiting several extra weeks to get their hands on a newly designed Free Application for Student Aid. You might know it better as FAFSA.

The delay in the current process puts students behind when applying for financial aid.

Tabitha Jackson, senior seminar instructor for CICS Longwood High School, works with seniors at the charter school in Chicago. She said FAFSA has always been an Achilles heel, but the delay -- combined with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to repeal affirmative action -- has further exacerbated the process.

"It's so frustrating and it's so hurtful to let a student know, 'Because of who I am, I may not have some additional support or some additional support benefits of being able to go to this school,'" she said. "My question is to my students: 'If affirmative action stops at this level, what's next?'"

Jackson added a lot of students don't want debt, and financial aid helps determine which college they can afford. The 2024-25 FAFSA form is expected to be available by the end of 2023.

The cumbersome conditions coincide with a downward trend for high school seniors who are participating in career and college aid counseling.

Doug Keller, partnership lead with San Francisco-based YouthSurvey, said its Class of 2022 Survey underscores troubling findings from respondents.

"We found that there's significant declines among particular student groups and their participating in counseling about how to pay for college -- specifically, among Hispanic or Latinx students, multi-racial and multi-ethnic students and boys," he explained.

Keller said the largest gap is among American Indian, Alaskan and other Indigenous students, with a 14% gap between those who want to go to college and those who expect to attend.


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A program giving high school students a taste of college and college credits along the way is celebrating its 33rd year of operation in Washington state.

The Running Start program offers 11th and 12th graders an opportunity to take college courses at the state's 34 community and technical colleges and three of its universities.

Julie Garver, director of policy and academic affairs for the Washington State Council of Presidents, which represents universities, said the program eases the transition to college-level learning.

"By being able to explore those things within high school, which is a safer environment or within those contexts, then students are able not only to get the confidence but to get those skills," Garver outlined. "They are not surprised and learning that transition while they're also taking college courses when they're at one of our campuses."

More than 27,000 high school students were enrolled in Running Start at community and technical colleges in the past academic year.

Jamie Traugott, director of dual credit and strategic enrollment initiatives for the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, said students in the program report feeling better prepared for the next step in their academic careers.

"The confidence of being able to complete a college-level class, but then really to be like, 'OK, I did this. What else can I get involved with?'" Traugott noted. "Or, 'Maybe, I thought I would go to a community technical college, but I never considered that I could also transfer to a four-year institution.'"

Traugott added the program has been helpful for the students who are able to access it but there is still more work to do to close equity gaps in enrollment.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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Degrees and credentials after high school will become increasingly important in the job market, a new report found.

Analysis from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce showed 72% of jobs will require postsecondary education or training by 2031. Oregon ranks 11th for most jobs requiring additional education.

Nicole Smith, chief economist at the center and a co-author of the report, said there could be a skills shortage in the market if the U.S. does not prepare.

"Some of the concern we have is that we're not producing enough people with the credentials, education, the skills, the training that we need for those jobs that will appear in the future," Smith explained.

Between 2021 and 2031, the report found an average of 238,000 jobs will become available annually in Oregon. It said 168,000 of those openings will be for workers with postsecondary training of some sort.

Smith emphasized the window is closing for workers who only have a high school degree and opportunities need to be set up to ensure they can get further education.

"Those that don't have the key to the future -- and that key is a postsecondary vocational certificate, certification, some type of credential beyond high school -- if you don't have that key, you run the risk of being left behind," Smith stressed.

Smith added greater education will not only be important for people who just have high school degrees.

"Even if you're standing in a particular type of job, if you want to move forward, you want to advance, you want to get to be the manager in that profession, you want to get to be the team leader, a lot more education and training is required in order for you to advance to that level," Smith pointed out.

Support for this reporting was provided by Lumina Foundation.


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