Book Banning, Curriculum Restrictions, and the Politicization of U.S. Schools

Recent debates across the country have pushed for book banning and the adoption of politically motivated laws and policies on school curricula. Such measures seek to prevent teachers from providing a thorough curriculum on American history, civics, and government in U.S. public schools and deny students their rights to a complete education.¹ At least 17 states have introduced bills containing gag orders² or taken other steps that would restrict how teachers can discuss American history and current events, including pulling books off library shelves in an effort to suppress so-called “divisive concepts”—a shorthand affectation nearly always referring to issues about race and identity.³

In Texas, for example, at least 713 books have been banned from public schools, and school districts’ and school boards’ attempts to censor books have triggered a systematic review of hundreds of books in every school district in the entire state.⁴ These censorship efforts require tens of thousands of hours from teachers, librarians, and administrators to review the books and implement a system of censorship—all at a time when school resources are already stretched thin, and states across the country are facing teacher and staff shortages.

These actions run counter to the shared value of free speech that has informed generations of American progress. They also violate the First Amendment, 14th Amendment, and Title IX rights of all students and educators, with particular disproportionate impact on people of color and LGBTQI+ individuals.⁵ However, despite some states’ and localities’ focus on book bans and curriculum restrictions, national polling data detailed throughout this report reveal that a majority of Americans oppose the anti-public-education movement, which involves policy decisions that perpetuate discrimination and inequity in education by cutting or reallocating funding dedicated to public schools toward private or alternative schooling structures that tend to benefit the wealthy; want teachers and students to play a more active role in determining school curricula; and want schools to embrace diversity and inclusion. But this is not evident from many media headlines, which often sensationalize popular political talking points, even those with no basis in truth.

Preparing students for all types of civic engagement by teaching complete history is crucial; yet beginning as early as the 2016 Trump administration campaign, efforts to weaken the U.S. Department of Education through proposed cuts of $7.1 billion⁶ in funding. These cuts would undermine the department’s guidance and protections of vulnerable students attending public school, continue to threaten the future of public education in the United States.

When Americans call their legislators, join school boards, or utilize social media platforms to share their concerns about education, they are exercising the right to make their voices heard on policy issues—a right that is central to the American civic engagement process. Schools have a core responsibility to teach students about these processes. Book bans and curriculum gag orders make it impossible for every child to receive a high-quality and age-appropriate education by dictating whose history, identities, and voices matter.

For example, when a 2022 nationwide survey from Campaign for Our Shared Future⁷ asked, “All things being equal, would you prefer that each of the following take a more active role in the decisions about the subjects students are taught in schools, or a less active role?”, 92 percent of parents and 85 percent of voters overall said they believe that teachers should play a more active role in decisions about what subjects are taught in classrooms.⁸ Additionally, 74 percent of parents and 71 percent of voters overall reported believing that current high school students should play the second-most-active role.⁹

Ongoing state and local actions to ban books simply because they address racism, white supremacy, or LGBTQI+ issues have inspired students to stand up for their civil rights. Young adults attending public, charter, and private schools in Delaware began submitting stories of their experiences with overt and systemic racism,¹⁰ countering the narrative that America is a post-racial country and that racism no longer exists. Hundreds of students have taken to student-run social media accounts on platforms such as Instagram to tell their stories in the form of quotes or summaries detailing their experiences with racism and other forms of discrimination in their public, charter, and private schools.¹¹ Young adults in Texas and Pennsylvania have also protested,¹² while others in Missouri have sued their districts for removing books that are inclusive of multiple groups across racial/ethnic, gender, nondisabled and disabled, and socioeconomic lines.¹³

Recent survey research conducted by the National Education Association¹⁴ and ASO Communications¹⁵ between September and October 2021 found that “everyone across demographics agrees” that removing history from curricula and banning books are tools that politicians use to control a political narrative. GBAO and Anchor Collaborative conducted a similar survey in April and May 2022 and found a majority of Americans felt that efforts to censor classroom conversations about race “go way too far.”¹⁶ The survey asked participants to rate on a scale of 0–10 how well a group of statements on “historical facts, honesty, and no one being ashamed of their background” described how they feel about race in America, where 10 means the statement “describes how you feel very well” and 0 means it “does not describe how you feel at all.” Fifty-nine percent of people responded to the following statement with a rating of 8–10:

Efforts to censor teachers, omit history, or ban important conversations about race in our schools go way too far. Our children deserve an education honest about who we are, demonstrating integrity in how we treat others, and creating a sense of belonging so every child has the freedom to learn, grow, and pursue their dreams.

Research findings from Campaign for Our Shared Future¹⁷ found that in a national sample of parents and nonparents ages 18 and older who are registered or likely voters, more than half were overall supportive of, and voted in favor of, educators teaching about the following topics in K-12 schools:¹⁸

• Civil rights movement: 87 percent of parents and 78 percent of nonparents ages 18 and older
• The history and experiences of Native Americans: 86 percent of parents and 79 percent of nonparents ages 18 and older
• Slavery: 74 percent of parents and 71 percent of nonparents ages 18 and older
• Racial inequity in America’s past: 73 percent of parents and 66 percent of nonparents ages 18 and older
• Ongoing effects of slavery and racism in the United States: 69 percent of parents and 60 percent of nonparents ages 18 and older
• Systemic racism in America’s institutions and society: 59 percent of parents and 53 percent of nonparents ages 18 and older

Yet, in less than one year, state legislators have called for districtwide reviews of books, despite a nationwide teacher shortage and other existing strains on the teacher workforce.¹⁹ These actions are part of anti-public-school policies and agendas, which have adverse impacts on the experiences of students who attend these schools. More recently, states such as Arizona²⁰ and Tennessee²¹ have also resurrected former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’ privatization schemes and proposals to expand tax incentives that benefit private-school parents by passing voucher laws allowing parents to move their children into private school or other alternative schooling options with no accountability in accordance with Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) law.

Interestingly, polling data on voters’ attitudes toward school voucher programs reveal that despite Arizona voters’ previous opposition to and rejection of a similar universal vouchers proposal—with 67 percent voting “No” and 33 percent voting “Yes”— in 2018, Arizona lawmakers successfully passed a new law on school choice vouchers.²² Other national polling results found that 49 percent of survey participants believe:²³

Certain politicians try to use race to turn us against schools and teachers, or point the finger at parents. These politicians want to keep us from coming together to demand every school provide a quality education to every child, not just the children of the wealthy few.

More than 1,500 book bans have occurred in at least 86 school districts in 26 states since politicians began igniting the anti-public-education movement toward the end of 2019.²⁴ Of the total number of books banned, 41 percent include protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are people of color; 22 percent of the titles directly address issues of race and racism; 16 percent are history books or biographies; and 9 percent have themes related to rights and activism.²⁵ Other survey results revealed that 51 percent of survey participants responded to the following statement with a rating of 8–10, with 10 indicating that the statement describes how they feel “very well”:²⁶

While educators work to deliver our children accurate and honest education, some politicians are trying to censor the truth of our history, passing laws to ban learning from the mistakes of our past and erase leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. who stood up to racism and changed our country for the better.