Nine percent of bills have included one or more punishments of this type, the same percentage as in 2021. Indeed, lawmakers have continued to introduce anti-CRT and Dont Say Gay bills with regularity. The courts have failed. Another notable development has been the spread of private rights of action, an enforcement mechanism popularized by the 2021 Texas abortion ban, which allowed private citizens to sue abortion providers as a novel mechanism for curtailing abortion rights.96Alice Miranda Ollstein and Josh Gerstein, Texas Abortion Ban Spawns Look-Alike Laws but Could Be Short-Lived, Politico, September 2, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/09/02/texas-abortion-law-private-right-to-sue-509244. According to a 2021 survey administered by College Pulse of over 37,000 students at 159 colleges, 80 percent of students self-censor at least some of the time. These include West Virginias SB 498, where lawmakers failed by just minutes to meet the end-of-session deadline, and Arizonas SB 1412, where one state senators absence on the last day of the session prevented the bill from becoming law. In Texas, would ban public universities from having DEI offices, and, would prohibit the use of diversity statements in hiring. For example, one of the concepts that HB 7 prohibits faculty from espousing is that an individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion. By any reasonable interpretation, HB 7 makes it illegal in the state of Florida for a law professor to articulate arguments in favor of affirmative action in the classroomeven though affirmative action exists and is currently held by the Supreme Court to be constitutional in some forms.27Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), https://www.oyez.org/cases/1979/76-811. Whereas last year it was quite common for gag order bills to target state agencies, political subdivisions, and state contractors, reference to these institutions has been more or less absent in bills introduced this year. Now this campaign appears to have turned its attention to gender identity and sexual orientation as well. |, Educational censorship is continuing to spread across the country in 2023, with, Bills legislating educational censorship in schools, colleges, universities, and libraries have been on the rise in the past two years, as PEN America has. Gov. d. a broader spectrum of educational censorship, including so-called curriculum transparency bills, reporting hotlines, legislation facilitating book bans and undermining tenure and academic freedom, and lawsuits designed to force maximal interpretations of existing gag order laws. I think new models for a university are important, Dr. Pinker said, because current universities are locked into a strange business model: exorbitant tuition, a mushrooming bureaucracy, and obscure admissions policies that are neither meritocratic nor egalitarian, combined with plummeting intellectual diversity and tolerance for open inquiry (which is, after all, a universitys raison dtre)., Dr. Pinker, like others on the board of advisers, has experienced the polarizing atmosphere of academia firsthand but he said this is not about me.. In a related vein, Virginias SB 1463 would require schools and libraries to affix a parental advisory label to the front of any book that contains sexually explicit material. As PEN America has said previously, these kinds of ratings and labeling systems would inherently contain subjective and potentially politicized decisions, and would concentrate power in the hands of government officials to dictate the bounds of what all students and families can read, learn, and sharein ways that are deeply undemocratic.. such student or employee to believe certain concepts about race, color, national origin, or sex. I would like it to be less than $30,000 a year for sure, he said. 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. (F) presentation of political spectrums as measured by the factors of state control versus individual liberty, regardless of economic model. . Some have even gone so far as to liken such lessons to grooming, the action by a pedophile to prepare a child for sexual exploitation. understanding of the United States.73Missouri HB 2189, https://legiscan.com/MO/text/HB2189/id/2464797; Missouri SB 645, https://legiscan.com/MO/text/SB645/2022. Similarly, South Carolinas H 4605 would have forbidden state-funded entities from subject[ing] individuals to . At the state level, the 2023 legislative session is shaping up similarly; there has been a large increase in clones of Floridas Dont Say Gay law, a slight decrease in divisive concepts bills, and overall a similar number of bills introduced this year compared with 2022. Bills that have become law in 2022, as well as executive orders enacted this year, are singled out for special analysis in Section I.2Note: To avoid confusion regarding bills introduced in 2022 and those introduced in 2021 but considered in both years of a legislative session, we have omitted dates from the bills referenced in footnotes. For that matter, compulsion laws could easily be used to block educators from asking their students to play devils advocate, engage in formal debate, or defend controversial viewpoints as part of a pedagogical exercise. Rather, they address an entirely different situation, where a teacher is offering biased or factually incorrect instruction. Members of the Mississippi House of Representatives speak to the press on March 3, 2022, after voting against SB 2113, the state's educational gag order. Greg Abbott signed a bill banning explicit books along with additional measures to increase parents' input in . Before violators can be punished, they must be identified. Bills attacking institutional independence have appeared in at least 5 states, including Iowa, North Dakota, Mississippi, Texas, and Oklahoma. 26 v. Pico (1982), Brennan further elaborated that public schools must operate in a manner that comports with the transcendent imperatives of the First Amendment.4Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. Opinion | I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship UN Takes Cues From Orgs That Seek To Censor Conservatives For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact 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. Of the educational gag order bills introduced in 2022, 55 percent have included some form of explicit punishment. Font Size: A United Nations (U.N.) policy proposal that outlines how to combat online "mis- and disinformation and hate speech," including through demonetization, is informed by work from groups that actively push to censor conservative speech online. Not all of these bills are considered by PEN America to be educational gag orders, a term we reserve for legislation prohibiting the expression of certain ideas in a school or university. Bills that have become law in 2022, as well as executive orders enacted this year, are singled out for special analysis in Section I. PEN America, Failed Bill Brought by Arizona Democrats Would Have Restricted What Teachers Can Teach, July 5, 2022. On the other hand, up to half of academics were uncertain whether they opposed or supported cancelling such academics, indicating a large pool of cross-pressured opinion. Similar tip lines have been proposed in Alaska, New Jersey, and Oklahoma. Language of this type, which has spread widely in 2022, would shut down important conversations in the classroom and would particularly imperil cultural and ethnic studies courses. Legislation of this type is not new; in Tennessee, for example, such bills have been introduced multiple times since 2013, without success. School libraries have emerged this year as especially tempting targets for lawmakers. (Details concerning legislative proposals that implicate public libraries can also be found on the website of, would ban gender and sexuality information directly, by prohibiting libraries from maintaining or promoting books on certain topics. These trends continue in 2022. For instance, how does one determine whether a teacher has illegally promoted an idea in the classroom? HB 3826 in South Carolina), or depictions of gender identity (e.g. West Virginias SB 252 would prohibit any transvestite and/or transgender exposure, performances or display to any minor within 2,500 feet of a public school. On their face, by prohibiting compelled speech, these gag order bills appear to adhere to existing First Amendment doctrine. Kentuckys HB 706, the most extreme private right of action bill, would have given any resident of the state a right to sue, including a domestic business entity residing in the [state] or a foreign business entity that is registered and in good standing with the Secretary of State.98Kentucky HB 706, https://legiscan.com/KY/text/HB706/id/2532276/Kentucky-2022-HB706-Introduced.pdf. 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. A History of Censorship in the United States. Such bills would likely have ruled out a host of curricular content, including books with LGBTQ+ characters, history about LGBTQ+ rights movements, and more. 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.. The mere fact of including that idea in the curriculum risks violating legislation in this category. , 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. In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Supreme Court struck down a state law requiring that public school students recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Such legislation seems likely to have a pronounced chilling effect on teachers and to exacerbate tensions between educators and the communities they serve. surrounding that language, this type of bill continues to be introduced in 2023, with a growing list of topics to be prohibited ranging from critical race theory to the theory that race is a social construct. 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. "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. Finally, lawmakers have increasingly attempted to regulate whether and in what ways educators may expose students to LGBTQ+ issues and identities.77For more on this category of educational gag order bills, see PEN Americas analysis in Educational Gag Orders Target Speech about LGBTQ+ Identities with New Prohibitions and Punishments, February 15, 2022, https://pen.org/educational-gag-orders-target-speech-about-lgbtq-identities-with-new-prohibitions-and-punishments/ Twenty-three anti-LGBTQ+ bills that would censor classroom speech have been proposed in 2022, compared with just five in 2021. Free speech in universities: What are the issues? - The House of Thanks in part to a perception that Glenn Youngkin won the Virginia governors race in November 2021 by campaigning against critical race theory in schools, most 2022 educational gag order bills have focused on educational settingsthat is to say, they have aimed to restrict students education. Most of these bills include some or all of the divisive concepts listed in President Trumps September 2020 executive order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping. The list is common across most bills, with some adaptation. One consequence of this censorship is that smart conservative students who do not conform ideologically are being dissuaded from pursuing graduate work and an academic career. Rebecca Kelliher, Wyoming Senate Votes to Stop Funding University of Wyomings Gender Studies Program, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, March 1, 2022. Many still contain elements from the executive order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, but often with significant elaboration. 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. These include West Virginias SB 498, where lawmakers failed by just minutes to meet the end-of-session deadline, and Arizonas SB 1412, where one state senators absence on the last day of the session prevented the bill from becoming law.7Liz McCormick and Suzanne Higgins, Anti-Racism Act Fails in Final Moments of 2022 Legislative Session, West Virginia Public Broadcasting, March 13, 2022, https://www.wvpublic.org/government/2022-03-13/anti-racism-act-fails-in-final-moments-of-2022-session; Arizona Legislature Updates: Lawmakers Adjourn for Final Time after Passing Water, School Voucher Bills, Arizona Republic, June 25, 2022, https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/legislature/2022/06/22/arizona-budget-updates-lawmakers-turn-attention-deal/7707801001/.