A bill requiring all public school districts to adopt a policy so parents can see what materials are in school libraries advanced with a vote Tuesday after a roughly 90-minute debate.

State Senator Dave Murman of Glenvil, who filed Legislative Bill 390, said during its hearing that the bill is an important next step after the Legislature updated parental access to curriculum content and training last year. The proposed law would require creating a public online or hard-copy catalog of all books in the district’s libraries, categorized by school building.

Under the bill, parents also could opt in for automatic email notification or another form of electronic notification when their student checks out a book. The book title, author and due date to return the book would be included in the notice.

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“This is important so parents can be fully informed and make knowledgeable and family-specific decisions on the content their children are reading,” Murman said on the floor Tuesday.

Murman said different families have different values and should have oversight over what their children read. The Republican is one of three lawmakers who proposed bills that could infuse more religion into public schools and test the legal limits of the separation of church and state.

State Senator Megan Hunt of Omaha called the bill a “watered down book ban” and said it doesn’t solve any actual issue. Hunt left the Nebraska Democratic Party in 2023 and is currently registered as a nonpartisan but typically votes with the Democrats in the Legislature.

“Instead of focusing on teacher shortages, on cuts to funding, on whatever nonsense is happening at the federal level that is freaking teachers out right now in Nebraska,” Hunt said. “Schools will now have to waste resources on redundant bureaucracy.”

State Senator Danielle Conrad of Lincoln defended the bill, though she agreed it might be unnecessary. Conrad is a registered Democrat and a former executive director of ACLU Nebraska.

“It is not a book ban. It is not the weaponization of the criminal law against libraries,” Conrad said. “It restates and reaffirms parental rights that already exist.”

Hunt was the only vote against moving Murman’s bill out of the Education Committee. Last year, the Nebraska State Board of Education rejected a push to define and ban sexually explicit books and materials from school libraries. Much of the floor debate alluded to that failed book ban.

Book bans have drastically increased in recent years from school boards and local and state governments nationally. Six states have enacted some type of book ban laws.

LB 390 moved forward with a 25-2 vote. Hunt said giving “conservative Republicans what they want” won’t make them willing to work with more liberal lawmakers.

“I got a ‘fell for it again award’ for you,” Hunt said.