No public funds may be spent for any purpose that would violate this law. The only exceptions were Arkansas, which had already passed a gag order the previous year, and states whose legislatures do not meet in 2022. This represents a significant increase over 2021, when only 44 percent explicitly referenced a punishment. In the month of January alone, 18 different educational gag order bills were filed in Missouri, 8 in Indiana, and 6 in Arizona (including 1 amendment to the state constitution). A final trend, illustrated by 23 bills introduced in 14 states thus far this legislative session, is bills which aim to censor or restrict minors from seeing drag performances, many of which directly target schools and libraries. Similarly, South Carolinas H 4605 would have forbidden state-funded entities from subject[ing] individuals to . Proponents of educational gag orders often claim that they are necessary to avoid indoctrination of students. Some educational censorship bills contain provisions designed to make it easier to challenge and remove library content that offends an individuals sensibilities. . A free speech expert defines censorship and applies that lesson to current political struggles in the US to ban books from public schools and libraries. Many of these bills follow templates established in prior sessions, but some reflect novel proposals to bring censorship to new extremes. The Department of Education will then publish a list of these challenges and disseminate them to schools across the state. These bills have adopted new and creative enforcement mechanisms designed to overcome the fact that nonpublic schools and universities are better shielded constitutionally against government curricular dictates. The most striking development to date in 2022 has been the sheer volume of bills introduced. Where the bills have been implemented, it makes no difference how objectively a teacher discusses a given idea, or even whether they forcefully critique it. The combination in 2022 educational gag order bills of extreme vagueness and extreme penalties would virtually guarantee a significant chilling effect on teachers and schools were these bills to become law. Typically, this has taken the form of a proposed telephone or email hotline. We also looked at the level of fear among dissenting scholars. . Numerous bills have required teachers to post on a publicly accessible website all course materials, assignments, and lesson plans prior to using them in instruction. Librarians train to defend intellectual freedom and fight book bans at Chicago conference. PEN America, These 4 Florida Bills Censor Classroom Subjects and Ideas, March 17, 2022. socialism, Marxism, communism, totalitarianism, or similar political systems are incompatible with and in conflict with the principles of freedom upon which the United States was founded. Finally, the future of educational gag orders will likely unfold as part of a broader legislative campaign of educational censorship. If there is a less tolerant generation entering academia which prizes emotional safety over academic freedom, this bodes ill for the future of free expression in the scholarly community. It is also likely that we will continue to see the adoption of district-level educational gag orders that are not enshrined in state legislation. In Virginia, Governor Glenn Youngkin has actually created such a tip line via an email address, though no legislation specifically called for one.115Gov. In a lawsuit challenging HB 7, a University of Central Florida professor explained that he no longer felt free under the law to discuss with his students Michelle Alexanders 2010 book, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. In 2022, that number has increased to 39 percent, several of which, like South Dakotas HB 1012, focus exclusively on higher education.24South Dakotas HB 1012 became law in 2022. Though HB 1012 contains only compulsion language, Governor Kristi Noem commented after the laws passage that it had banned [critical race theory] in our universities.. This report consists of six sections. Such bills would likely have ruled out a host of curricular content, including books with LGBTQ+ characters, history about LGBTQ+ rights movements, and more. Finally, a smaller but still significant number of gag order bills have included some other form of punishment, such as loss of institutional accreditation, loss of tax-exempt status, or criminal penalties. With, in Texas, vendors to public schools who fail to rate their books as directed by the state would risk being placed on a no-buy list. There is a legislative war on education in America. Only this can prevent them from giving in to the well-organized minority of intolerant activists who are increasingly setting the tone on campus. For instance, Indianas HB 1231 would have stripped state accreditation from any nonpublic K12 school that discussed race, sex, or US history in an unacceptable way. Educational gag order bills have been more likely to feature an explicit punishment for violators, in some cases proposing multiple punishments for the same alleged violation. See Executive Order 13950, Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, September 22, 2020. A note on the scope of this report: PEN America recognizes that public education is a public good, subject to public debate, deliberation, and oversight; that a wide range of stakeholders should have a say in our educational system; and that views will vary regarding which materials and courses are of legitimate educational value. PEN America, Ban on 52 Books in Largest Utah School District Is a Worrisome Escalation of Censorship, August 1, 2022. While tolerance may be a function of age, these results dovetail with studies showing that between 2000 and 2016, college students grew less tolerant of dissenting views on hot-button issues touching on race, gender and sexuality. So They Are Starting a New One. (F) presentation of political spectrums as measured by the factors of state control versus individual liberty, regardless of economic model.76West Virginia HB 4016, https://legiscan.com/WV/text/HB4016/id/2500304/West_Virginia-2022-HB4016-Introduced.html. Similar consistency language can be found in Floridas HB 7 and Rhode Islands H 7539. The most important example of this trend is Floridas HB 7. , it was introduced to protest the hypocrisy of his House and Senate colleagues who support educational gag orders: If were afraid of teaching children about things that could cause discomfort, then we need to add slave owners to the list. Another subset of bills introduced this legislative session have a criminal element. "SB 83 would not only legalize censorship in Ohio's public universities, but would mandate it," said Jeremy C. Young, Freedom to Learn program director. CHICAGO -- School librarian Jamie Gregory has been called a "pedophile" and "groomer," bombarded with private messages threatening harm, accused of distributing . Copyright 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. School libraries have emerged this year as especially tempting targets for lawmakers. For example, under the law, public universities in Tennessee may no longer discuss in a seminar or assign for an orientation any material that promotes division between, or resentment of, a race, sex, religion, creed, nonviolent political affiliation, social class, or class of people. This provision could be construed to mean that a historian of the US civil rights era or of the Holocaust cannot include in a course historical sources that might inspire resentment of the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis, each of whom might be considered a class of people, a term that is not defined. Second, the law requires school districts to collect these challenges, regardless of their merit or outcome, and report them to the commissioner of education. If these teachers work in a state with an inclusion ban, presenting such ideas in the classroom would put them at risk of violating the law. It should be instructive to consider how the problem of censorship has been dealt with in the ancient world, in premodern times, and in the modern world. age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards. This provision owes a clear debt to Floridas Dont Say Gay law, but in so far as it does not prohibit a category of speechat least until the state standards changewe do not consider it an educational gag order. Compared to 2021, the bills introduced this year would permit a far wider array of people to file suit. In higher education, educational gag orders are just one of the ways lawmakers are increasingly seeking to undermine academic freedom, shared governance, and faculty tenure. In 2021, the North Dakota legislature passed HB 1508 after just five days of debate. For example, Idahos HB 377, which became law in 2021, states that no public university or school shall direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to certain concepts related to sex, race, ethnicity, religion, color, or national origin.42Idaho HB 377, https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessioninfo/2021/legislation/H0377.pdf. address a situation where a teacher is compelling student speech or belief. Beyond these proposed prohibitions on what faculty can teach are other bills that target academic freedom, by either weakening tenure protections or attacking universities institutional autonomy. Under both SB 937 and SB 935, secular humanism would be defined as a type of religion, with critical race theory, drag queen story hours, sexual orientation, and gender identity identified as inseparably linked to secular humanism. No punishment is specified. A History of Censorship in the United States. For example, Floridas HB 1467, which became law in 2022, contains two important provisions relevant for school librarians. Between a fifth and a half of academics would mark a right-leaning grant application lower. Censorship calls have largely focused on critical race theory, a legal framework "that posits racial discrimination is embedded within US laws and policies," despite the fact that educators insist CRT is not taught in K-12 schools. , which would prohibit public school history teachers from offering any instruction about persons who owned slaves. However, this bill, which is one of just three educational gag orders to have been authored by a Democrat so far in 2023, is not meant to ever become law. South Dakotas HB 1012, which became law in 2022, is a good example of this phenomenon, and one mentioned specifically in a recent FIRE analysis. A note on the scope of this report: PEN America recognizes that public education is a public good, subject to public debate, deliberation, and oversight; that a wide range of stakeholders should have a say in our educational system; and that views will vary regarding which materials and courses are of legitimate educational value. . would prohibit any transvestite and/or transgender exposure, performances or display to any minor within 2,500 feet of a public school. More than 100 interviews over the last six months with professors, students, administrators, and alumni at U.S. universities reveal a worrying prevalence of self-censorship regarding China. While successful legislation is the greatest threat to classroom free expression, the avalanche of proposed bills that did not pass are also worthy of both attention and concern. For example, Rhode Islands H 7539 would have prohibited teachers from using any instructional material that suggests an individual is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously, solely by virtue of his or her race or sex, or that an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, [bears] responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex. All of this is copied more or less verbatim from Trumps executive order. For instance, West Virginias SB 587 would have created a tip line that parents could use to report teachers where, their fundamental rights are being violated, where their children are not being respected, and where there are inherently divisive practices being taught in schools.. Focusing on materials broadly defined in classrooms and schools today, a committee of English educators updated a 2004 position statement originally detailing censorship of "nonprint" materials. But this bill was filed only two days before the end of the Arizona legislative session and never had any chance of passage. But my study found that this is just the tip of an iceberg of threats to academic freedom. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. Is that really all the First Amendment offers, wrote the judge hearing the case in his decision denying the governments motion to dismiss, that you can speak all you want as long as you toe the government line?31Judge Mark E. Walker, Order Granting in Part and Denying In Part Motion to Dismiss, Falls v. DeSantis, 4:22cv166 (2022), https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flnd.430092/gov.uscourts.flnd.430092.68.0.pdf. Get updates on events, literary awards, free expression issues, and global news. But legislation restricting what concepts and perspectives may be covered constricts classroom teaching and learning unreasonably. This includes Florida's HB 1557the so-called "Don't Say Gay" billand 22 others. March 15, 2022 6:59 pm ET. Far from it. Finally, lawmakers in 2022 seem to have lost their appetite for regulating speech and conduct in nonschool settings. This trend indicated a larger shift in the source of restrictions and censorship: from the federal government to student activists, and now universities on behalf of students. And increasingly, this ethos is moving off campus into other professional organizations such as tech firms and newsrooms. It would prohibit public schools and higher education institutions, as well as private schools, colleges, and universities that benefit from any state fund or grant, from promoting or endorsing the narrative that the United States was founded for the purpose of oppression, that the American Revolution was fought for the purpose of protecting oppression, or that United States history is a story defined by oppression. Educators are also prohibited from teaching that with respect to their relationship to American values, slavery and racism are anything other than deviations from, betrayals of, or failures to live up to, the authentic founding principles of the United States, which include liberty and equality. They may not provide instruction that teaches theoretical ideas or uncorroborated claims as factual, expose minors to any sexually explicit or obscene content (including any mention of gender identity), or promote the idea that race or biological sex is a social construct. Again, in a higher education context, these prohibitions run directly counter to the dictates of academic freedom protections. During 2022, bills with this type of prohibition became law in Mississippi and South Dakota.44Mississippi SB 2113, https://legiscan.com/MS/text/SB2113/id/2546132/Mississippi-2022-SB2113-Enrolled.html; South Dakota HB 1012, https://legiscan.com/SD/text/HB1012/id/2543182/South_Dakota-2022-HB1012-Enrolled.pdf. Such requirements may seem harmless, but in practical terms their vague, nonspecific language offers limitless opportunities for activists or administrators to claim teachers are in violation of such provisions.55PEN America, For Educational Gag Orders, the Vagueness Is the Point, April 28, 2022, https://pen.org/for-educational-gag-orders-the-vagueness-is-the-point/. A Mississippi representative proposed a bill to install cameras in classrooms, something she said was necessary to hold teachers accountable for teaching so much critical race theory.110Mississippi HB 790, https://legiscan.com/MS/text/HB790/2022; J.T. understanding of the United States., ) would have prohibited anti-American bias.. The early returns from the 2023 legislative sessions suggest that lawmakers fervor to censor and ban content from educational institutions has not abated. that his goal is to have the legislation introduced in Florida spread to other states. While not all of these are direct attacks on speech, institutional independence has long been understood to be, a necessary precondition for academic freedom and free speech on campus. Geraldine Baum, Chief Communications Officer, oversaw production and release of the report, with assistance from Debi Goldberg, Senior Communications Consultant. In the words of Justice William J. Brennan, writing for the majority in, Keyishian v. Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, Board of Education, Island Trees Union School District No. Colby Itkowitz, GOP Turns to False Insinuations of LGBTQ Grooming against Democrats,. South Carolinas H 4605 would have forbidden public K12 teachers from subject[ing] students to controversial and age-inappropriate topics such as gender identity or lifestyles.85South Carolina H 4605, https://legiscan.com/SC/text/H4605/id/2450490/South_Carolina-2021-H4605-Introduced.html. Similar examples are common throughout discourse on gag orders and illustrate the expansive ways supporters would seek to enforce them. Florida Board of Governors, 10.005 Prohibition of Discrimination in University Training or Instruction, Tennessees HB 2670, which also became law this year, goes further. That right is also protected under the principles of academic freedom, both in public universities and in the vast majority of private colleges that have voluntarily undertaken to uphold academic protections. In Texas, would ban public universities from having DEI offices, and, would prohibit the use of diversity statements in hiring. To talk about this rise in book censorship, what's behind it, and how it impacts which lived experiences get shared in classrooms, we were joined by the editor of an independent editorial book site, as well . Legislation of this type is not new; in Tennessee, for example, such bills have been introduced multiple times since 2013, without success.91GLSEN Condemns Reintroduction of Tennessees Dont Say Gay, February 1, 2013, https://www.glsen.org/news/glsen-condemns-reintroduction-tennessees-dont-say-gay. Similar consistency language can be found in Floridas HB 7 and Rhode Islands H 7539.54Florida HB 7, https://legiscan.com/FL/bill/H0007/2022; Rhode Island H 7539, https://legiscan.com/RI/text/H7539/id/2522893/Rhode_Island-2022-H7539-Introduced.pdf. Students have also protested speakers with divisive political views, including the social scientist Charles Murray and the geophysicist Dorian Abbot. While not all of these are direct attacks on speech, institutional independence has long been understood to be a necessary precondition for academic freedom and free speech on campus; without it, colleges would be subject to the whims of the legislature, inviting ideological control or politically-motivated incursions over what should be a bastion of open inquiry. status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race. In their response, lawyers for the state of Florida acknowledged this example but argued that the professor could still discuss The New Jim Crow so long as he did so objectively and without endorsement. Many students and faculty members believe that universities should not invite speakers who do not share their values on social issues like racial injustice; their words, they believe, can slide into harassment and hate speech. Additionally, two executive orders that achieve similar ends have gone into effect. No longer has standing been limited to students or their parents. Such bills would likely have ruled out a host of curricular content, including books with LGBTQ+ characters, history about LGBTQ+ rights movements, and more. Providing additional facts can no more remedy compelled speech than reading the Gettysburg Address can undo a mandatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Bills this elaborate remain uncommon, but they have appeared with much greater frequency in 2022 than in 2021. On Monday, in an essay for Ms. Weisss newsletter, Common Sense With Bari Weiss, Dr. Kanelos wrote: So much is broken in America. In July, Alpine School District in Utah announced a plan to remove 52 books in response to this guidance.40PEN America, Ban on 52 Books in Largest Utah School District Is a Worrisome Escalation of Censorship, August 1, 2022, https://pen.org/press-release/ban-on-52-books-in-largest-utah-school-district-is-a-worrisome-escalation-of-censorship/. And under Kentuckys SB 1, which became law in April 2022, instruction must be relevant, objective, non-discriminatory, and respectful to the differing perspectives of students.50Kentucky SB 1, https://legiscan.com/KY/text/SB1/id/2569767. Is that really all the First Amendment offers, wrote the judge hearing the case in his decision denying the governments motion to dismiss, that you can speak all you want as long as you toe the government line?, Judge Mark E. Walker, Order Granting in Part and Denying In Part Motion to Dismiss,. In a British survey, I compared those working in universities to those working in other professional settings and found a much higher level of self-censorship in universities. These bills have adopted new and creative enforcement mechanisms designed to overcome the fact that nonpublic schools and universities are better shielded constitutionally against government curricular dictates. Dillon Burroughs, Governor Kristi Noem Announces Executive Order Banning Critical Race Theory in Schools: No Place in Our South Dakota Public Education, Daily Wire, April 5, 2022. The Dont Say Gay bills are only the most visible aspect of a broader campaign by legislators in 2022 against discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in educational settings. Educators might well conclude that a ban on compulsion will in practice be interpreted to mean something far more censorious than the plain language suggests. If you are an educator, college or school administrator, student, or parent and would like to engage with PEN America on this topic, please reach out to our experts at. We disagree. Dr. Kanelos, who describes himself as a Shakespeare scholar and old soul, said he was pleased by the uproar over his announcement. In their 2021 report. Type of punishment: loss of institutional autonomy, professional discipline, https://legiscan.com/KY/text/SB1/id/2569767, Type of prohibition: inclusion, promotion, Targets: public K12 schools, public colleges and universities, Targets: public colleges and universities, https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/Billinfo/default.aspx?BillNumber=HB2670&ga=112, Type of prohibition: inclusion, compulsion, https://governor.sd.gov/doc/GovNoem-K12CRT-EO.pdf, Type of prohibition: promotion, compulsion, This executive order prohibits public K12 schools from promoting any ideas in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, including ideas from a list of divisive concepts related to r. ace, color, religion, sex, ethnicity, or national origin. Universities cannot reform themselves. The vast majority of the punishments proposed in 2022 have fallen into three different categories: a civil suit, monetary penalty or loss of state funding, and professional discipline. Section V discusses penalties and punishments, an area where there has been considerable evolution since 2021. Nikoel Hytrek, Why More Students Are Walking Out at Iowa Schools, Iowa Starting Line, April 17, 2022, Such strained conditions also seem likely to add to the nations worsening teacher shortage. And a slew of bills introduced this year in Oklahoma would have regulated whether public school libraries could stock books about LGBTQ+ issues; university professors could discuss gender, sexual, or racial diversity, equality, or inclusion; or teachers or professors could promote a position that contradicts a students sincerely held religious belief. Ohios HB 616 would forbid them from teaching, using, or providing any curriculum or instructional materials on sexual orientation or gender identity.. Some bills have widened the scope of individuals who would have standing to file civil suits, and have experimented with new ways of targeting nonpublic educational institutions. In 2022, bills and policies weakening tenure have been adopted in Mississippi and Florida, with similar efforts underway in Texas and Louisiana.126Molly Minta, College Presidents Now Have Final Say on Tenure after IHL Quietly Revises Policy, Mississippi Today, April 21, 2022, https://mississippitoday.org/2022/04/21/tenure-ihl-revises-policy/; Divya Kumar, Florida Legislature Passes Bill Allowing More Scrutiny of Tenured Faculty, Tampa Bay Times, March 10, 2022, https://www.tampabay.com/news/education/2022/03/10/florida-legislature-passes-bill-allowing-more-scrutiny-of-tenured-faculty/; Dan Patrick, Statement on Plans for Higher Education and Tenure, Office of the Lieutenant Governor, February 18, 2022, https://www.ltgov.texas.gov/2022/02/18/lt-gov-dan-patrick-statement-on-plans-for-higher-education-and-tenure/; Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Legislature Approves Task Force to Study Tenure, Reveille, May 23, 2022, https://www.lsureveille.com/news/louisiana-legislature-approves-task-force-to-study-tenure/article_5383fe44-daea-11ec-8d83-33854e609d64.html. South Dakotas HB 1012 became law in 2022. Other bills would achieve a similar effect via a different route. The prohibitions on promotion are problematic as well. But he distanced himself from some of the more provocative statements by the universitys backers. The alignment of these efforts has in some instances breathed new life into efforts to enact bills restricting classroom expression about LGBTQ+ identities. A group of scholars and activists are planning to establish a new university dedicated to free speech, alarmed, they said, by the illiberalism and censoriousness prevalent in Americas most prestigious universities., The university, to be known as the University of Austin, or UATX for short, will have a soft start next summer with Forbidden Courses, a noncredit program that its founders say will offer a spirited discussion about the most provocative questions that often lead to censorship or self-censorship in many universities.. For example, under Mississippis HB 437, public K12 schools would have been unable to include . Similarly, no universally accepted distinction exists between a balanced presentation of material and a biased one; implementation of such requirements is essentially subjective, dependent on the interpretations of individual parents, administrators, or enforcement agencies. Beyond K12 schools, a growing number of bills have targeted public colleges and universities. Legislation of this type is not new; in Tennessee, for example, such bills have been introduced multiple times since 2013, without success. But H 7539 then goes on to prohibit teachers from using terms such as supremacy, racial guilt, and racial fragility. Indeed, it includes a more general attack on identity politics, stating that no exclusive focus or centering of curricula on the history, literature, current events, or cultural contributions of individual identity groups shall be permitted. It also forbids teachers from making use of any ideological materials, worksheets, homework, texts or assigned reading, and/or mentored discussions that depict identity groups as oppressors and/or victims.65Rhode Island H 7539, https://legiscan.com/RI/text/H7539/id/2522893/Rhode_Island-2022-H7539-Introduced.pdf. While none of these copycat bills have become law as of August 2022, several have come close, and more seem likely to be introduced in 2023. Some include explicit bans on such performances in these settings, while others include prohibitions on drag performances being hosted on public property or with the use of public funds. (Note: the word transgenderism is generally considered offensive by the transgender community.). We should protect our children from being exposed to this evil by sweeping it under the rug and never addressing it.. Compared to 2021, penalties have also tended to be more extreme, with higher monetary fines and more severe forms of professional discipline. The bans in these bills are both pithy and absolute, with no elaboration on how these standards would be judged. Of the educational gag order bills introduced in 2022, 55 percent have included some form of explicit punishment.
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