The War on Librarians

This post was originally published on the South Carolina Education Association’s CEWL website.

So many people told me, you're not qualified for this job.

-Ellen Weaver (panel discussion, Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors Summit 2023)

Last week, South Carolina Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver formally cut ties between the state Department of Education and the South Carolina Association of School Librarians (SCASL), a relationship which has been consistent across Democratic, Republican, and nonpartisan superintendent administrations in the state for five decades. To many reading the news, this probably seemed like an out-of-left-field move from a superintendent who has made few in-state public appearances since taking office this year (although it might seem more surprising if she didn’t seem to be so good at generating unnecessary controversy). As Jace Woodrum, director of the ACLU of South Carolina, aptly pointed out in an interview with the Post and Courier, Weaver’s organizatio…