PEN America Releases Report on Educational Gag Orders

by SLJ Staff
Aug 17, 2022 | Filed in News & Features

"America's Censored Classrooms" looks at state legislation around the country that is aimed at limiting what K-12 educators can teach about subjects such as race, gender, and American history.

PEN America released a new report, America’s Censored Classrooms, which looks at educational gag orders by state legislations across the country. These efforts attempt to “restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities in K–12 and higher education,” according to PEN America.

The organization tracks these bills in its regularly updated Index of Educational Gag Orders.

The key findings in the report:

This year, proposed educational gag orders have increased 250 percent compared to 2021. Thirty-six different states have introduced 137 gag order bills in 2022, compared to 22 states introducing 54 bills in 2021. While there has been a decline in new gag order laws passed from 12 last year to 7 this year, overall, legislative attacks on education in America have been escalating—fast.
This year’s bills have been strikingly more punitive. In 2022, proposed gag orders have been more likely to include punishments, and those punishments have more frequently been harsh: heavy fines or loss of state funding for institutions, termination or even criminal charges for teachers.
While most gag order bills have continued to target teaching about race, a growing number have targeted LGBTQ+ identities. This includes Florida’s HB 1557—the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill—and 22 others. Attacks on LGBTQ+ identities have increasingly been at the forefront of educational censorship.
Bills introduced this year have targeted higher education more frequently than in 2021, part of a broader legislative attack on colleges and universities. Thirty-nine percent of bills in 2022 have targeted higher education, compared with 30 percent last year. At the same time, bills focused on diversity trainings at government agencies have decreased. Educational gag order bills have become focused almost entirely on educational institutions. And for the first time, some bills have targeted nonpublic schools and universities, too.
Consistent with last year’s trends, Republican legislators have overwhelmingly driven this year’s educational gag order bills. Only one bill out of the 137 introduced so far this year has had a Democratic legislative sponsor. Just a few years ago, Republican legislators were championing bills protecting free expression on college campuses; many are now focused on bills that censor the teaching of particular ideas.
Meanwhile, conservative groups and education officials are working to broaden the interpretation of existing gag order laws. Lawsuits have begun to appear that ask courts to interpret gag orders as broadly as possible, while state boards of education have handed down draconian penalties in excess of what the laws require.
In 2023, we anticipate that the assault on education will continue. More gag order bills will be filed in states where they failed narrowly this year. Based on current trends, we predict that other legislative attacks on education, such as “curriculum transparency” bills, anti-LGBTQ+ bills, and bills that mandate or facilitate book banning are also likely to increase.

Read the full report.

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