The number of book bans in schools and libraries nearly tripled during the 2023-24 school year to more than 10,000, across red and blue states, according to a recent PEN America report. But that alarming statistic does not necessarily reflect how most voters feel about this growing form of censorship.
As President-elect Donald Trump promises to withhold federal funding from schools that do not comply with executive orders restricting curriculum content, state and local officials must take steps to protect school governance decisions that reflect the will of the people in their communities. To accomplish this aim, more pre-K-12 educators should participate in local school board meetings and run for open school board seats.
Before the election, conservative political advocacy groups mobilized their members to file book removal petitions, regardless of whether those filers were the parents or caregivers of a child enrolled in those schools.
In a 2023 Washington Post investigation, researchers analyzed all book challenges filed in the 2021-22 school year across 37 states. They found that 43 percent of challenges targeted titles with LGBTQ+ characters, and 36 percent focused on books featuring characters of color or addressed themes of race and racism. About 60 percent of petitions came from serial filers who challenged 10 or more books that year. According to one report, there were so many curriculum complaints in Florida that state lawmakers had to pass a measure to limit the number of objections.
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Educators who disagree with the bans and challenges may have more support than they expect in their communities. A 2022 American Library Association survey of voters found that the majority of respondents (67 percent), across party affiliation, opposed books bans. Ninety percent of respondents, regardless of party, reported high regard for librarians, with 75 percent expressing high confidence that librarians would make responsible decisions about book selection.
Despite this support, teachers and librarians who have defied book bans or similar censorship measures have been sanctioned or fired, while others face increasingly hostile workplaces due to the political climate in their school communities. In a recent Pew Research Center study, more than 40 percent of teachers said that political debates over race, gender and sexuality topics affected them negatively. This negative environment coincides with a national teacher shortage crisis as more educators leave the profession and fewer parents encourage their children to become teachers.
Instead of succumbing to political pressure or accepting this strife as inevitable, more educators must get involved in school governance decisions — especially decisions that affect teaching about race and racism, ensuring rights and protections for LGBTQ+ students and maintaining access to books that speak to those topics. The most effective ways to influence these decisions are to participate in school governance and run for school board.
Year over year, school board seats go unfilled or uncontested across the country. Moreover, many seats are held by community members with little or no experience as pre-K-12 educators. Rather than avoiding school board meetings, more educators should be running them. If local rules prohibit educators from serving on their own school board, they can run for a neighboring one.
Related: The magic pebble and a lazy bull: The book ban movement has a long timeline
As a former teacher who has spent more than two decades facilitating conversations about race, gender and sexuality with parents, teachers, school leaders and board members, I have three practical suggestions for educators getting involved in local school governance to help address book bans.
Do your homework. Learn about commonly banned books by reading reports and resources from the American Library Association, PEN America and other credible nonprofit associations. When petitions to ban books appear, find out the key reasons for the complaints, what petitioners say they most fear or care about and whether these reasons reflect a majority opinion or represent the political agenda of a smaller group. When a book is removed, be prepared to discuss the decision with students.
Promote dialogue and consensus. Research has shown that people are likely to hold onto a deeply held belief even when their facts don’t add up. So don’t just point out the factual inaccuracies in someone’s position in an effort to win an argument; instead, invite further discussion. Ask book challengers to share more about how they came to certain conclusions about the book in question and which book might be a better alternative. In group settings, notice who is not speaking up, invite multiple people to share viewpoints and ask what each person believes is at stake. Rather than trying to resolve differences as quickly as possible, redirect efforts toward building consensus on a review process that includes community input.
Establish shared responsibility. Instead of waiting until the next school board meeting to deliberate book challenges, establish a curriculum review committee and invite applications from educators and parents or caregivers committed to volunteering year-round to assess books and other curriculum materials. Generating clear criteria for committee membership and realistic expectations for ongoing participation can promote shared responsibility, strengthen transparency and increase the likelihood of finding common ground.
The 2024 election results do not erase constitutional protections of free speech and democratic principles of civic discourse in our nation’s public schools. Teachers, librarians and school leaders should be leading productive discussions in schools that challenge students to think critically about diverse, inclusive and age-appropriate subject matter unavailable to previous generations of students. To achieve this aim, more educators must play an active role in making policy decisions that govern their profession.
John Pascarella is a professor of clinical education and chief academic officer of the Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California.
Contact the opinion editor at [email protected].
This story about book bans was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for Hechinger’s weekly newsletter.