Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d| Title: | Educational gag orders: Legislative restrictions on the freedom to read, learn, and teach |
| Contributors: | Friedman, Jonathan Tager, James |
| Keywords: | Education and state—United States Race relations—Study and teaching—United States—Legislation Public schools—Curricula—Censorship—United States Academic freedom—United States Teaching, Freedom of—United States |
| Issue Date: | 2021 |
| Publisher: | PEN America |
| Place of Publication: | New York |
| Description: | Between January and September 2021, 24 legislatures across the United States introduced 54 separate bills intended to restrict teaching and training in K-12 schools, higher education, and state agencies and institutions. The majority of these bills target discussions of race, racism, gender, and American history, banning a series of “prohibited” or “divisive” concepts (including what legislators call "critical race theory") for teachers and trainers operating in K-12 schools, public universities, and workplace settings. These bills appear designed to chill academic and educational discussions and impose government dictates on teaching and learning. In short: They are educational gag orders. In this report, we have focused our examination on state-level legislation, as state governments have primary authority over public education. However, the language in many of these bills has also appeared elsewhere: in bills and proposals introduced at the federal level, within other state organs, and in local school boards. Arriving alongside similar waves of legislation to restrict voting and protest rights, these censorious bills reflect a larger and worrying antidemocratic trend in U.S. politics, in which lawmakers use the machinery of government in attempts to limit Americans’ ability to express themselves—and particularly in order to block the expression of ideas or sentiments the lawmakers oppose. This report offers an in-depth analysis of these state legislative efforts from January to September, 2021. We document the origins and extensive spread of various proposals and describe the many legal, constitutional, and civic concerns they raise. |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01f4752k89d |
| Related resource: | https://pen.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PEN_EducationalGagOrders_01-18-22-compressed.pdf |
| Appears in Collections: | Monographic reports and papers (Publicly Accessible) |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PEN_EducationalGagOrders_01-18-22-compressed.pdf | 1.88 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
Items in Dataspace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.