The startup that turned Texas's book ban law into big business

"Wandler spoke in support of SB 13, telling lawmakers it "empowers parental access" and "mandates accountability with the school districts." His investment in the bill's passage wasn't merely rhetorical: Public records show Bookmarked spent at least $80,000 lobbying in favor of the measure, and later hired the powerful Texas lobbying firm Moak Casey to help promote its cause."

"The legislation addressed the very issue Wandler believed his company could help solve. The bill, authored by Republican state Senator Angela Paxton, would require districts to pull books featuring content deemed by local school boards to be "profane," "indecent," or "sexually explicit," and expanded parents' rights to monitor their children's borrowing histories and restrict what their children could check out."

"Critics saw SB 13 differently, with free-speech advocates warning the new system amounts to codified censorship. Tasslyn Magnusson, a senior advisor with the Freedom to Read Program at PEN America, says that tools aggregating and circulating lists of challenged titles can reshape library collections."

In 2023, Steve Wandler, a Canadian entrepreneur, relocated to Texas and founded Bookmarked, a startup aimed at helping school districts manage library collections while giving parents visibility into their children's reading. Wandler testified before the Texas legislature in support of Senate Bill 13, controversial legislation that would require schools to remove books deemed "profane," "indecent," or "sexually explicit" by local school boards, and expand parental rights to monitor borrowing histories and restrict checkouts. Bookmarked spent at least $80,000 lobbying for the bill's passage and hired the Texas lobbying firm Moak Casey to promote it. Free-speech advocates, including PEN America, opposed the legislation as codified censorship, warning that tools aggregating challenged book lists could reshape library collections.

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