Now more than ever, local and state politicians are increasingly involved in the lessons and discussions being held in America’s K12 classrooms. Often, what’s going on in classrooms is being left up to interpretation rather than what’s being communicated by the school itself, which is why some leaders vow to operate with complete transparency. In other instances, legislators are mitigating the risk of exposure to “sensitive content” through a legislative trend known as “ed scare.”
“For the past three years, significant state-level legislative energy has been channeled into proposals related to education, including passing explicit curricular prohibitions into law,” reads a recent report from the anti-censorship organization PEN America. Such legislation comes in many different forms, the researchers added, including:
- Enhanced curriculum inspection provisions
- Library inspection or removal provisions
- Teacher inspection provisions
- Education à la carte provisions
- Harmful to minor provisions
- Anti-LGBTQ+ provisions
- Student monitoring provisions
- Classroom surveillance provisions
- Parental rights enforcement provisions
- Educational gag order enforcement provisions
- State-level interference provisions
- Anti-DEI
These tactics seek to “chill public education” in ways that are less direct ways that don’t involve removing specific content from one’s curriculum. According to the data compiled by PEN America, there have been at least 48 laws and policies enacted over the past two years that contain at least one of the twelve provisions listed above.
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What may not come as a surprise to some is that library inspections and book removals are among the most common forms of legislation passed by politicians. Here’s a look at the data:
Note: The categories overlap
- Library inspection/removal: 20
- Expands “harmful to minors” definition: 13
- Enhanced curriculum inspection: 12
- Anti-LGBTQ+: 12
- A la carte (parents opt-in/out): 11
- Parental rights enforcement: 10
- Monitoring of student behavior: 10
- State-level interference: 10
- Educational gag order enforcement: 1
“Many of the bills introduced in the past three years incorporate both direct and indirect forms of intrusion and intimidation together, making it clear that the provisions rationalized as serving ‘parental rights’ or ‘school transparency’ have a different purpose: to encourage censoriousness and intimidate educators,” the report reads.
But teachers aren’t the only ones impacted by such legislation, the researchers declare. Inevitably, students become the most “immediate victims.” In states where these provisions have become law, students are less likely to be exposed to diverse lessons and library books.
“As more educational intimidation bills become law, students can expect to find fewer lessons in the classroom or books in the library that deal with ‘controversial’ topics—fewer that is, that reflect the complex realities of the society in which students live,” the researchers conclude.
