Banning Books Censoring Lessons and Redacting History
Dear Leading Ladies,
Many of us are watching our children and grandchildren head off to school this week, some for the first time. Those of us in the Northeast can be pretty sure (and yes, we've know about the problem in Ludlow, MA, but it's an outlier) that the shelves in school libraries will not be emptied of books that depict characters with two mothers or fathers, or boys or girls questioning their sexual identities. We don’t have to worry that children will be taught a redacted history of the United States that includes untruths such as enslaved people of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries benefitted from their positions by learning skills and training for which they should have been grateful. We can be pretty sure that students won’t be indoctrinated with Christian religious dogma in public schools, and that the student body’s variety of religious and spiritual beliefs will be appreciated.
Alas, these assurances are far from nationwide. States determine the majority of educational policy. In fact, according to the US Department of Education, “the Federal contribution to elementary and secondary education is about 8 percent, which includes funds not only from the Department of Education (ED) but also from other Federal agencies, such as the Department of Health and Human Services' Head Start program and the Department of Agriculture's School Lunch program.” Consequently, there are significant differences in the type — and quality — of education that children receive in our country.
Where the federal government does have influence
That is not to say that the federal government and the Constitution have nothing to say about the role of education. For example, let’s take religion. According to the US Department of Education,
A public school and its officials may not prescribe prayers to be recited by students or by school authorities. Indeed, it is “a cornerstone principle of [the U.S. Supreme Court's] Establishment Clause jurisprudence that ‘it is no part of the business of government to compose official prayers for any group of the American people to recite as a part of a religious program carried on by government.’ “Nothing in the First Amendment, however, converts the public schools into religion-free zones, or requires students, teachers, or other school officials to leave their private religious expression behind at the schoolhouse door. The line between government-sponsored and privately initiated religious expression is vital to a proper understanding of what the Religion and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment prohibit and protect. Although a government may not promote or favor religion or coerce the consciences of students, schools also may not discriminate against private religious expression by students, teachers, or other employees. Schools must also maintain neutrality among faiths rather than preferring one or more religions over others.
In other words, students have the right to pray in school, but schools can’t dictate that they do pray or organize prayer activities. Of course they can teach about religion, but there is a big and important difference between teaching about religion and promoting religion.
Indisputedly, certain legislation has given the federal government an ongoing and increasing influence on national educational policies in other areas as well. For instance, the passage Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibiting “discrimination based on race, sex, and disability, respectively made civil rights enforcement a fundamental and long-lasting focus of the Department of Education,” according to the Department of Education. Then, “in 1965, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act launched a comprehensive set of programs, including the Title I program of Federal aid to disadvantaged children to address the problems of poor urban and rural areas.” The Department of Education became a Cabinet level agency in 1980 with programs at the elementary and secondary level that now serve approximately 98,000 public schools, as well as 32,000 private schools.
Illustration by George Bourne (1853) | Columbia County Observer graphic
But the states hold most of the power
All that said, the majority of the decisions and responsibility fall to the states and local governments. They decide the curriculum, teaching methods, and instructional materials in their schools. These local authorities may even create educational curricula and/or legislate who can. The results, beyond establishing vastly different standards from one geographical area to another, demoralize teachers by taking away any agency they have in creating their own curricula and methodology. This when teacher morale is already suffering and finding qualified teachers to work in underfunded, crowded schools for inadequate pay is a challenge in too many states.
Meanwhile, the new AP African American Studies course, due to be piloted this fall in 800 schools nationwide, has been banned in Florida. State officials claim the course wrongfully included topics such as Black Lives Matter, Black feminism and reparations. They assert that they already teach Black history, though critics quoted in USA Today say the classes “leave out Florida’s role in slavery, blame African Americans for being victims of oppression and omit major periods of history.”
Since this flap, Florida also criticized the AP Psychology course because it included discussions of sexual identity and gender identity, which Florida law restricts.
And then there are book bannings
Book bannings in public schools increased by 28% in the first half of the 2022–23 academic year, according to Pen America which called it a “relentless” conservative “crusade to constrict children’s freedom to read” in The Guardian.
Where is book banning happening most? Book bans are more common in Republican-run states, The Guardian reported. “According to Pen, ‘seven districts in Texas were responsible for 438 instances of individual book bans, and 13 districts in Florida were responsible for 357 bans’.” Furthermore, Pen noted that close to a third of banned books are about race, racism or include characters of color, while more than a quarter have LGBTQ+ characters or themes. Missouri, Utah, and South Carolina follow in frequency of book bannings.
Of added concern is the use of inflammatory language to justify the bannings. As Pen put it, there is a “misapplication of labels such as ‘pornographic’ or ‘indecent’ by activists and politicians to justify the removal of books that do not remotely fit the well-established legal and colloquial definitions of pornography.” This suggestion of putting porn in schools is an effort to “conflate books that contain any sexual content or include LGBTQ+ characters with pornography.”
What can we do?
Politics don’t belong in education, but the rise in book bannings and curriculum censorship provide clear evidence of political agendas interfering with providing children an education that exposes them to truths and ideas from multiple points of view, and that challenges them to solve problems, adapt, and collaborate.
If you are curious to learn more, these organizations offer more information and ways to support the ideals of a broad and honest education:
American Civil Liberties Union
American Library Association Advocacy
National Education Association
Hoping your kids and grandkids have a school year full of new ideas, books, and friends!
Therese (she/her/hers)
Judy (she/her/hers)
Didi (she/her/hers)
Leading Ladies Executive Team