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The American Library Association, a nonprofit whose stated primary mission over the last century has been advocating for libraries and librarians, is fighting a new bill in Congress that aims to cut off federal funding to schools that promote or provide sexual programming or literature to children.

The language the ALA is using to fight the measure, however, has conservative parents groups either scratching their heads or crying hypocrisy.

These parental advocacy groups, such as Moms for Liberty and Eagle Forum, are questioning the ALA’s stated commitment to backing parents’ rights to determine what sexual material their children can or cannot read or be exposed to at school.

In fact, the conservative groups argue, the ALA’s mission is in direct conflict with parents’ rights. It’s absurd to for the ALA to say it supports conservative parents’ rights to oppose or opt out of certain school activities while encouraging more libraries across the country to hold drag queen story hours and purchase books that include sexually explicit material in elementary and secondary public-school libraries, the groups argue.

The debate is taking place amid new attention to the culture wars playing out in public schools across the nation. Just Monday the Supreme Court blocked, for now, a California rule preventing teachers and school administrators from telling parents if their children start identifying as transgender without getting the student’s approval.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of Maryland parents who wanted to opt out of LGBTQ -friendly curriculum on religious grounds. Last week the court found that the Maryland’s Montgomery County Board of Education must comply with paying $1.5 million in damages to the group of parents.

On Friday Rep. Mary Miller upped the ante. A Republican from Illinois who chairs the House Family Caucus, she introduced Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, a bill that would prohibit the use of funds at schools promoting any program or activity that includes sexually oriented material, while preserving instruction in science, classic literature, art, and world religion.

“I agree that parents, not bureaucrats should guide their children’s reading, and that’s why this legislation exists,” she told RealClearPolitics. “The American Library Association actively opposes groups that are raising concerns about the hyper-sexualization of material in schools.”

Yet, in working to defeat the new bill banning federal funding from schools that expose children to sexual material, ALA President Sam Helmick issued a press release Friday arguing that “parents, not politicians, should guide their children’s reading.”

Helmick also claimed that the work of librarians in public schools remains “grounded in one clear purpose: helping young people become lifelong readers.” Miller’s bill isn’t “fundamentally about protecting kids,” Helmick argued.

Instead, “it’s about giving politicians broad authority to restrict whose stories are allowed on our shelves,” Helmick said. “That should concern anyone who believes in the freedom to read and the right of families to make decisions for themselves.”

Yet, even as the ALA claims to be nonpartisan and support parent rights and choices, on its website the organization often cites advocating for a “more........

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