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american library association
Report on State of US Libraries Exposes Trump Attacks and Record-Breaking Book Ban Efforts
Book bans "were part of a well-funded, politically driven campaign to suppress the stories and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals and communities," said an American Library Association leader.
Apr 20, 2026
"The State of America's Libraries" report "is in a very real way a report on the state of our nation," American Library Association executive director Dan Montgomery wrote in the introduction of the annual publication, released Monday.
"Unsurprisingly, then, there is much to be deeply concerned about in these pages, and much to bring hope," the ALA leader acknowledged. "Ultimately, this report can serve as a clarion call to those who love libraries and our republic."
Published at the beginning of National Library Week, the report explores a range of topics, including threats to intellectual freedom. ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) found that last year at least 4,235 unique titles were challenged—the association's term for an attempt to have a resource removed or restricted—the second-highest ever documented, just short of 2023's record.
OIF also found that at least 5,668 books were banned from libraries—66% of those challenged—and 920 books faced restrictions such as relocation or a parental permission requirement. The ALA noted that "this is both the highest number of titles censored in one year and the highest rate of challenges resulting in censorship" dating back to 1990.
"In 2025, book bans were not sparked by concerned parents, and they were not the result of local grassroots efforts," explained Sarah Lamdan, executive director of the OIF, in a statement. "They were part of a well-funded, politically driven campaign to suppress the stories and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC individuals and communities."
Specifically, OIF found that 92% of all book censorship efforts were initiated by "pressure groups, government officials, and decision-makers," and fewer than 3% came from individual parents. Additionally, 40% of the unique titles challenged last year—1,671 works—were about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ people and people of color.
"Libraries exist to make space for every story and every lived experience," stressed ALA president Sam Helmick. "As we celebrate National Library Week, we reaffirm that libraries are places for knowledge, for access, and for all."
The most-targeted titles in 2025 were:
1. Sold by Patricia McCormick
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
3. Gender Queer: A Memoir by Maia Kobabe
4. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
5. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
5. (tie) Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
8. (tie) A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
8. (tie) Identical by Ellen Hopkins
8. (tie) Looking for Alaska by John Green
8. (tie) Storm and Fury by Jennifer L. Armentrout
The ALA publication also features sections on library services for people who are incarcerated or in reentry, how libraries can "approach literacy in a community-driven, responsive way to meet today's rapidly evolving and growing literacy needs," and "intensified debates over access to information and shifting fiscal priorities."
The report highlights ALA's Show Up For Our Libraries campaign, launched in the face of attacks from Republican President Donald Trump—who has issued executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and to effectively dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services. He also fired the librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden, and the register of copyrights, Shira Perlmutter.
From threats to (and victories for) intellectual freedom, to increasing services for incarcerated people, to a whirlwind of legislative and legal battles, 2025 proved pivotal for our nation's libraries.Read more in our State of America's Libraries Report: A Snapshot of 2025: https://bit.ly/3ORpvpE
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— American Library Association (@amlibraryassoc.bsky.social) April 20, 2026 at 9:00 AM
While the report sounds the alarm on the state of US libraries—and the nation more broadly—it also emphasizes, as Lamdan wrote in one section, that "the story of library censorship in 2025 is... not only about the challenges libraries faced, but also about the resilience of the people who stood up for them."
"Legal victories and new state-level protections emerged in several regions, reinforcing longstanding principles of intellectual freedom and reaffirming libraries' role as institutions that serve all members of their communities," she noted. "Coalitions of library workers, authors, educators, and community members successfully advocated for right to read laws in Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island that protect intellectual freedom, libraries, and library workers."
"Courts across the nation held that censorship legislation was unconstitutional," Lamdan continued. "Judges declared that laws including Florida's HB 1069 and Iowa's SF 496, which provide for the removal of books containing certain viewpoints, were unconstitutionally vague and overbroad. Courts also affirmed the First Amendment right to read in libraries. Voters in states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas rejected censorship-focused school and library board candidates, electing board members who promised to protect people’s right to read and learn."
She added that "2025 was also a year of coalition-building. Grassroots activists, advocacy organizations, writers, authors, publishers, teachers, parents, and library workers came together to celebrate libraries and the joy of reading."
The report was released less than three months ahead of the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence.
"As we look toward the next 250 years, the choice is ours," said Helmick. "We can let our libraries fade, viewed as charming relics of a bygone era. Or, we can choose to invest in them as a bedrock of our future. Let us decide, right now, that they are not optional. They are the very breath of a free society, and they are worth fighting for."
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Libraries: the Frontline in the Fight for Abortion Access—and Against Misinformation
People from all walks of life use the public library, and all these people deserve to be there and have their information needs met—including those looking for accurate abortion resources.
May 29, 2025
Robert Francis Prevost was recently named as Pope Francis’ successor to one of the leading religions in the world, which makes the fact that 60% of U.S. Catholics think abortion should be legal in all or some cases even more powerful. But the reality is that laws, stigma, misinformation, and disinformation—or deliberately wrong information—continue to pose substantial barriers for many.
Wanting people to have access to accurate abortion information is actually what led me to library school.
Before Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, I volunteered at a Texas abortion fund. One instance that often replays in my head is when an abortion seeker reached out and shared they had an appointment at a clinic that week. However, the name did not sound familiar to me, which was an immediate red flag given the small number of clinics that had managed to remain open in the face of many restrictions.
While I might not be a librarian yet, I have witnessed firsthand the unfortunate consequences of people not knowing how to spot misinformation or where to find the facts.
So I did what I was trained to do: a quick online search to verify. When I discovered their website, it was filled with false information. I knew my fears had come true. This person did not have an appointment.
All I could do was provide emotional support and gently state the facts: This is a state-funded fake clinic and is meant to dissuade you from accessing the care you need, but real clinics exist.
After I walked them through the next steps—which consisted of making several more calls: first to an actual abortion clinic nearest to them and then back to us for funding once an appointment had been secured—I felt defeated.
I knew how to spot fake clinics because I had been taught what to look for. But knowing what kind of information to look for and where is not a skill everyone has time to learn, especially an abortion seeker in a hostile state where the hourglass to access is always quickly running out of sand.
In my first year of my Master’s in Library and Information Science program, I learned a series of lessons.
People from all walks of life use the public library. Students who need to use the public computers for homework, immigrant families attending bilingual story time, and retirees conducting personal research, just to name a few. All these people deserve to be there and have their information needs met.
Sometimes that information goes against our personal beliefs, but it is our job to provide information to those who ask for it without bias or judgment. As stated in the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights, our profession affirms that every person in our communities has the right to books and other resources of interest, information, and enlightenment.
While I might not be a librarian yet, I have witnessed firsthand the unfortunate consequences of people not knowing how to spot misinformation or where to find the facts.
One way librarians can address these issues is by using comprehensive information sources like INeedAnA and AbortionFinder, two public databases that provide verified information regarding abortion clinics, state laws, and more. Knowing they exist is an easy way to be prepared for an inevitable question from a patron. If one of your tasks as a librarian is to create LibGuides, those online resource guides that cover a range of topics, or other forms of guides, consider adding these websites to those on abortion. If your library has a public bulletin board, download a flyer or other printable graphic to share with your community.
To be sure, librarians and library workers are not in positions to provide legal or medical advice, and doing so could have serious ramifications. However, there is nothing illegal about simply giving someone information. If anything, this is how we uphold our communities’ freedom to information, and that is our professional responsibility regardless of our individual views.
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Censorship Opponents Vow to Fight Right-Wing Assault This Banned Book Week
"When we ban books, we're closing off readers to people, places, and perspectives," said the American Library Association. "But when we stand up for stories, we unleash the power that lies inside every book."
Oct 02, 2023
A coalition of publishers, teacher and librarian groups, and other advocates on Sunday kicked off this year's Banned Books Week by rallying behind the freedom to read amid an alarming surge in right-wing book bans across the United States.
For over 40 years, the annual Banned Books Week—whose theme this year is Let Freedom Read—has united writers, publishers, booksellers, educators, librarians, and readers "in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular," as the American Library Association (ALA) put it.
"When we ban books, we're closing off readers to people, places, and perspectives. But when we stand up for stories, we unleash the power that lies inside every book," the ALA said. "We liberate the array of voices that need to be heard and the scenes that need to be seen. Let freedom read!"
As of August 31, the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom has documented 695 attempts this year to remove a total of 1,915 titles from public and school libraries. Last year, the group counted 1,269 attempts to censor library books and other resources—the highest number of ban efforts since the ALA started tracking them over 20 years ago and nearly double the previous year's tally.
ALA said that of the record 2,571 unique titles targeted for censorship, most were by or about LGBTQ+ people and Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
"This is a dangerous time for readers and the public servants who provide access to reading materials," ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said in a statement. "Readers, particularly students, are losing access to critical information, and librarians and teachers are under attack for doing their jobs."
For this year's Banned Books Week, PEN America and We Believe led a joint statement signed by more than three dozen publishers and advocacy groups.
The statement begins: "We believe in the freedom to read. Schools and libraries are critical places to kindle imaginations and spark a lifelong love of learning. Students deserve classrooms and school libraries that help them be successful. We believe stories matter. Books can be powerful, compelling, insightful, and enjoyable. Literature has endless value and should be publicly accessible to all."
"We believe in the freedom to learn," the signers continued. "Students need access to accurate history. Students deserve the chance to understand their world and everyone in it. Growing up is hard enough. Classrooms and school libraries should be spaces where all students feel they belong."
"We believe teachers and librarians deserve respect," the statement continues. "Schools and libraries are staffed by trained professionals who make informed decisions about educational materials. Their assessments should be respected and not subject to political pressure, threats, or intimidation."
"We believe parents are partners in education," the publication asserts. "Parents have long had a voice in schools. When a parent, student, or teacher requests or objects to a book, they should have their concerns heard and considered. However, one parent's views or one group of parents' views should not restrict access to books for all."
"We believe in clear, consistent, transparent policies around reviewing books," the advocates added. "Books must not be removed from shelves just because they are challenged. Evaluations of books must be based on facts and the merits, considered by decision-makers who have read the book in its entirety."
PEN America recorded a 33% surge in book bans at U.S. K-12 public schools during the 2022-23 academic year over the previous school year. The group noted 3,362 incidents involving 1,557 unique titles. Over 40% of these bans happened in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis—a 2024 presidential candidate—is waging a war on public education.
According to PEN America, the single-most censored title during the last school year was Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, a graphic memoir recounting the transgender author's journey from adolescence to adulthood. The book has been banned in dozens of school districts, often following pressure from far-right activists like Florida-based Moms for Liberty.
"If I'd had a book to read like this, specifically, when I was like a freshman in high school, it would have saved me years of questioning and confusion about my identity," Kobabe said in defense of the award-winning work.
A survey published last week by EveryLibrary Institute and Book Riot found that nearly three-quarters of U.S. parents agree or somewhat agree that book bans by public libraries infringe on their right to make choices for their children.
This week, PEN America and We Believe are also leading a letter for concerned citizens to sign and send to state governors and lawmakers to urge them to "fight back against book bans."
The letter begins, "Did you know that 4 in 5 Americans say they would be less likely to support a candidate in 2024 who is in favor of implementing book bans, according to a new poll from Ipsos and We Believe?"
"America's children are our future. Preparing them to lead and succeed in our increasingly diverse and complicated world starts with protecting their freedom to read, learn, and grow," the letter states. "Our nation's strength has always come from the free flow of speech and ideas. We should be modeling these ideals for our kids—not ripping books from their shelves."
The popular anti-censorship campaign has sparked at least one effort to ban Banned Books Week. However, the growing censorship threat has also spurred action to protect the freedom to read. Earlier this year, Illinois became the first state to prohibit public libraries from banning books.
"I refuse to let a dangerous strain of white nationalism determine whose histories are told in Illinois," Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker said after signing the legislation. "Because what these book bans in libraries really are about is censorship—marginalizing people, ideas, and facts."
At the national level, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hi.) last week reintroduced a resolution recognizing Banned Books Week and condemning "the escalating attacks on books and freedom of expression in the United States."
"The escalating crisis of book bans across our country in recent years is a direct attack on First Amendment rights and should concern everyone who believes freedom of expression and the freedom to read are essential for a strong democracy," Raskin said. "The sinister efforts to remove books from our schools and libraries are a hallmark of authoritarian regimes."
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ALA Decries 'Attacks on Our Freedom' With Record Book Challenges So Far in 2023
The data reflects a growing right-wing movement to restrict the topics taught in public schools and the media that children have access to.
Sep 20, 2023
A record number of library books were challenged during the first eight months of 2023, the American Library Association revealed Tuesday.
The ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) documented 695 attempts to remove a total of 1,915 library titles as of August 31. That's up from the 681 challenges to 1,651 distinct titles for the same period in 2022, and last year as a whole broke the overall record for book challenges since data collecting began more than two decades ago.
"These attacks on our freedom to read should trouble every person who values liberty and our constitutional rights," ALA OIF director Deborah Caldwell-Stone said in a statement. "To allow a group of people or any individual, no matter how powerful or loud, to become the decision-maker about what books we can read or whether libraries exist, is to place all of our rights and liberties in jeopardy."
The data reflects a growing right-wing movement to restrict the topics taught in public schools and the media that children have access to. In 2019, the ALA only counted 377 challenges to 566 titles, The Associated Press reported. In 2020, the number fell even further as libraries were closed because of Covid-19 lockdowns. Then, in 2021, it surged with a then-record 729 challenges targeting 1,597 books, the ALA said. In 2022, that record was broken again with a total of 1,269 challenges to 2,571 titles, 32% more than the previous year's record, ALA executive director Tracie D. Hall pointed out in an opinion piece for Time.
"This attempt to weaponize the right to read, and by extension the libraries that steward and protect that right, should be especially distressing to all of us as recent nationwide polling indicates that the vast majority of adults in this country, regardless of political party, oppose banning books," Hall wrote.
One sign that this is a censorship wave pushed by far-right groups like Moms for Liberty is the fact that the number of challenges targeting multiple books is rising. So far in 2023, 11 states reported challenges to 100 or more books, up from six states in 2022 and none in 2021, the ALA said. In 2022, 9 out of 10 challenges named more than one book.
"This places politics over the well-being and education of young people and everyone's right to access and use the public library."
This is leading to situations in which parents sign on to challenges backed by extreme groups despite never having read the books in question.
"If we have come to a time in this country when parents can be successfully swayed into restricting access to books they haven't read, what does that mean for our future as a nation?" Hall asked.
Another alarming trend is that challenges increasingly target books in public as well as school libraries, at 49% in 2023 versus 16% in the first eight months of 2022, according to ALA figures.
"The irony is that you had some censors who said that those who didn't want books pulled from schools could just go to the public libraries," Caldwell-Stone told AP.
In a separate statement, she said that public libraries were the "very embodiment of the First Amendment in our society."
"This places politics over the well-being and education of young people and everyone's right to access and use the public library," she said of the mounting challenges.
Finally, the challenges target the growing diversity of U.S. society, as the majority of them focused on books about or penned by members of the LGBTQIA+ community or people of color. The three most challenged books of 2022 were Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer, George Johnson's All Boys Aren't Blue, and Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.
"What this data set does not reveal are the people who want books that speak to their lived experience and librarians who want to make books accessible to people who find them relevant," ALA president Emily Drabinski said in a statement. "Both are under attack."
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Federal Judge Blocks Arkansas Law Criminalizing Librarians
"Do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties," said the head of the state ACLU.
Jul 30, 2023
A federal judge on Saturday temporarily blocked the implementation of an Arkansas law criminalizing librarians and booksellers who provide access to materials deemed "harmful to minors."
U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks—an appointee of former President Barack Obama—issued a preliminary injunction against two sections of Act 372 (also known as S.B. 81), a censorship bill introduced by Arkansas state Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-20), passed by the Republican-controlled state Legislature, and signed into law by GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in March.
The law—which would have gone into effect on Tuesday—makes it a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in prison to provide to a minor material "that to the average person, applying contemporary community standards, the dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to prurient interest."
The legislation also allows parents and legal guardians to access minors' library records.
Brooks' temporary injunction against Act 372 applies to Section 3—which criminalizes librarians and booksellers for providing access to materials deemed "harmful to minors"—and Section 5, which requires libraries to establish material review processes and empowers courts to compel libraries to remove materials that may be protected by the First Amendment.
"If merely having a book accessible on the shelf where a minor can reach it will potentially subject librarians and booksellers to criminal penalties, such books may simply be removed," Brooks wrote in his 49-page ruling. "As a result, these patrons claim their First Amendment right to access non-obscene (i.e., constitutionally protected) reading material will be dramatically curtailed."
In May, the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) led a lawsuit against the legislation. CALS executive director Nate Coulter said he is "extremely pleased and gratified" by Brooks' ruling.
"I'm relieved that for now the dark cloud that was hanging over CALS' librarians has lifted—they will not be threatened with jail for making books available to our patrons," Coulter told the Arkansas Advocate.
ACLU of Arkansas Executive Director Holly Dickson also welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that "we commend the court's decision to stop the enforcement of Sections 3 and 5 of Act 372, which would have jeopardized the essential First Amendment rights of all residents of Arkansas."
"It's regrettable that we even have to question whether our constitutional rights are still respected today," Dickson added. "The question we had to ask was, do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties."
Earlier this year, the American Library Association said that a record-breaking 2,571 unique titles were challenged by people or groups seeking bans in 2022, a 38% increase from the previous year.
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Rebuking Censorship Wave, Illinois Becomes First US State to Prohibit Book Bans
"At a time when some other states are fanning the flames of racism and LGBTQ+ hate," said one education advocate, "we're proud that Illinois has once again taken a stand for what is right."
Jun 15, 2023
Free expression advocates this week are applauding Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for signing a first-in-the-nation law that prohibits book bans at public libraries—a move that the Democratic governor said was a matter of resisting "a dangerous strain of white nationalism" that's behind a nationwide push to restrict access to books about people of color and LGBTQ+ communities.
The law (H.B. 2789) was signed Monday and will go into effect on January 1, 2024, barring public libraries from accessing state grants unless they adopt the American Library Association's (ALA) Library Bill of Rights, which states that materials must not be proscribed or removed from a library "because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval."
"We're showing everyone what it looks like to stand up for liberty. As simple as that," said Pritzker on social media after signing the bill. "Because what these book bans in libraries really are about is censorship—marginalizing people, ideas, and facts."
As Common Dreams reported in March, book bans and "challenges" surged to an all-time high in the U.S. in 2022, with the ALA reporting that 2,571 unique titles were named as books that should be removed from library shelves—a 38% increase from the previous year.
A separate report by PEN America found last September that 40% of challenged books had LGBTQ+ themes or characters, and 21% addressed "issues of race and racism."
States including Florida, Missouri, and Utah have imposed new laws prohibiting certain content in books, specifying how they can be accessed, and threatening punishment for librarians who provide children access to books that are deemed "harmful."
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is running for president in 2024, has also expanded efforts to control what public school students learn, banning classroom discussions of LGBTQ+ issues and race relations in schools.
"Here in Illinois, we don't hide from the truth, we embrace it," Pritzker said Monday as he signed H.B. 2789. "Young people shouldn't be kept from learning about the realities of our world; I want them to become critical thinkers, exposed to ideas that they disagree with, proud of what our nation has overcome."
PEN America noted on Thursday that as Pritzker was signing the law, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott was signing a bill that will give his administration "near full oversight in what books are in schools," with books deemed "sexually explicit" banned and booksellers required to place ratings on materials.
"There are few perils to our democracy as dangerous as book bans," said Dan Montgomery, president of the Illinois Federation of Teachers. "At a time when some other states are fanning the flames of racism and LGBTQ+ hate, we're proud that Illinois has once again taken a stand for what is right."
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Teachers Union Leader Calls for Defending Public Education From 'Dangerous' GOP Attacks
"A great nation does not fear people being educated," said American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.
Mar 28, 2023
American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten on Tuesday defended the egalitarian legacy and goals of public education and outlined a participatory plan to strengthen it nationwide as right-wing lawmakers intensify their long-standing assault on the institution.
"Attacks on public education are not new," the leader of the 1.7 million-member union said in an address to the National Press Club. "The difference today is that the attacks are intended to destroy it. To make it a battlefield, a political cudgel."
"We will continue to fight this defunding of our public schools and this dividing of our communities," said Weingarten. "But we also must do better to address the learning loss and disconnection we are seeing in our young people. And we can. We can make every public school a school where parents want to send their kids, educators want to work, and all students thrive."
The AFT president implored people to stand up for the future of public education, warning that its very existence is now threatened by a Republican-led effort to dismantle and privatize the schools attended by 90% of children in the United States.
"The Betsy DeVos wing of the school privatization movement is methodically working its plan," said Weingarten, referring to the Trump administration's pro-voucher education secretary. "Starve public schools of the funds they need to succeed. Criticize them for their shortcomings. Erode trust in public schools by stoking fear and division, including attempting to pit parents against teachers. Replace them with private, religious, online, and home schools."
"It's an extremist scheme by a very vocal minority of Americans," Weingarten noted. "And it's not what parents or the public want."
"We can make every public school a school where parents want to send their kids, educators want to work, and all students thrive."
According to Weingarten: "This year alone, 29 state legislatures are considering bills to either create or expand existing voucher programs. This is on top of the 72 voucher and tax credit programs in 33 states already subsidizing private and home schooling, costing billions every year. Voucher programs are proliferating even though research shows that, on average, vouchers negatively affect achievement—the declines are worse than pandemic learning loss. In fact, vouchers have caused 'some of the largest academic drops ever measured in the research record.'"
"And then there are the culture wars," said Weingarten. "What started as fights over pandemic-era safety measures has morphed into fearmongering: False claims that elementary and secondary schools are teaching critical race theory; disgusting, unfounded claims that teachers are grooming and indoctrinating students; and pronouncements that public schools push a 'woke' agenda, even though they can't or won't define what they mean. Banning books and bullying vulnerable children. School board meetings descending into screaming matches. This is an organized and dangerous effort to undermine public schools."
Last month, PEN America revealed that GOP officials across the United States introduced 84 educational gag orders during the first six weeks of 2023. This comes after Republican lawmakers put forth 190 bills designed to thwart classroom discussions of past and present injustices—including several proposals to establish so-called "tip lines" that would enable parents to punish school districts or individual teachers—in dozens of states in 2021 and 2022. Over the past two years, 19 laws aimed at silencing instruction about gender, sexuality, and racism were enacted in more than a dozen GOP-controlled states, plus eight measures imposed without legislation.
Moreover, the American Library Association reported last week that the far-right's campaign to ban books containing LGBTQ+ themes or stories about people of color has fueled an unprecedented rise in censorship attempts around the country, with 2,571 unique titles facing challenges in 2022, up 38% from the previous year.
"Their end goal," Weingarten said Tuesday during her speech, is "destroying public education as we know it, atomizing and balkanizing education in America, bullying the most vulnerable among us, and leaving the students with the greatest needs with the most meager resources."
To improve student outcomes and reclaim "the purpose and promise of public education," Weingarten shared the following four-part plan:
1. Opening 25,000 more community schools by 2025
As AFT explained in a statement, these schools "wrap academic counseling services, nutrition services, primary health and dental care, and much more around traditional schools to transform them into hubs that connect families and students with supports to learn and live."
2. Expanding experiential learning opportunities for all students, including career and technical education
According to Weingarten: "Experiential learning embeds the things that make kids want to be in school. The excitement of learning that is deeply engaging, and the joy of being together, especially after the isolation of the last few years. The camaraderie and responsibility of working together on a team. And in the age of AI and ChatGPT, this type of learning is critical to being able to think and write, solve problems, apply knowledge, and discern fact from fiction."
3. Reviving the teaching profession
With nearly 400,000 teachers "leaving the profession each year" and the teacher pipeline collapsing "as college students and career-changers choose not to go into education," Weingarten called for "treating educators as the professionals they are, with appropriate pay; time to plan and prepare for classes, to collaborate with colleagues, and to participate in meaningful professional development; and the power to make day-to-day classroom decisions."
4. Deepening partnerships with parents and community members
According to AFT, the union "has ramped up its Powerful Partnerships Institute, distributing 27 grants to locals totaling more than $1.5 million. For example, Montana is engaging thousands of public education-supporting families and educators across the state around a shared agenda. And New Haven is working with educators, families, and students on equitable school funding across Connecticut."
As part of AFT's Campaign for Our Shared Future, Weingarten announced the launch of a "Freedom to Teach and Learn" hotline for students, parents, teachers, and the public to document instances of censorship.
"Poll after poll has shown that parents and voters don't want politicized culture wars, they want schools and administrators to focus on what kids and communities need," AFT said. "The hotline—888-873-7227—will serve as a clearinghouse for reports of political interference. If Americans see something, they should say something."
In Weingarten's words, "It's a place to call if you've been told to remove a book from the curriculum or from the library, if you've been told that there are topics that can't be discussed in your classes or that you cannot teach honestly and appropriately, or if politicians in your district or state are targeting vulnerable student groups to score political points."
Alluding to AFT's four-point plan for greater investment and engagement, Weingarten said that "this is our agenda."
"But this can't just be the work of our union or of school staff and schools alone," she stressed. "This is the work of a great nation—to ensure that our children's basic human needs are met so they are ready to learn to their full potential."
"This can't just be the work of our union or of school staff and schools alone. This is the work of a great nation—to ensure that our children's basic human needs are met so they are ready to learn to their full potential."
"Our public schools shouldn't be pawns for politicians' ambitions. Or defunded and destroyed by ideologues," Weingarten continued. "We are at a crossroads: fear and division, or hope and opportunity."
"A great nation does not fear people being educated," she added. "A great nation does not fear pluralism. A great nation chooses freedom, democracy, equality, and opportunity. All of that starts in our public schools."
The labor leader opened with a moment of silence to honor the six people killed Monday in a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville—just one of 130 mass shootings in the United States in 2023.
Lamenting the nation's "epidemic" of gun violence, Weingarten renewed AFT's demand for "commonsense gun safety legislation, including a ban on assault weapons"—a policy that helped reduce the number and severity of fatal mass shootings when it was in effect from 1994 to 2004.
Guns recently became the leading killer of children and teens in the United States. Research published last year found that approximately 26,000 kids could still be alive today if the U.S. had the same gun mortality rate as Canada.
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'Never Seen Anything Like This': US Librarians Report Book Bans Hit Record High in 2022
"Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person's constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore," said one intellectual freedom advocate.
Mar 23, 2023
Librarians from across the United States released a report showing that pro-censorship groups' efforts to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes and stories about people of color have driven an unprecedented rise in the number of book challenges, with right-wing organizers pushing library workers to remove works ranging from the dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale to children's books about foods enjoyed in different cultures.
According to the American Library Association (ALA), a record-breaking 2,571 unique titles were challenged in 2022, a 38% increase from the previous year.
The organization recorded 1,269 demands to censor books from various groups and individuals, compared to 729 challenges counted in 2021.
"Each attempt to ban a book by one of these groups represents a direct attack on every person's constitutionally protected right to freely choose what books to read and what ideas to explore," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. "The choice of what to read must be left to the reader or, in the case of children, to parents. That choice does not belong to self-appointed book police."
The Office for Intellectual Freedom said that starting in 2021, a rising number of challenges began targeting large numbers of titles, suggesting they were coordinated efforts from national groups like Moms for Liberty. Previously, the vast majority of book challenges were focused on a single book to which a parent or group of parents objected.
In 2022, 90% of the books challenged were part of attempts to censor multiple titles, the ALA reported.
"A book challenge is a demand to remove a book from a library's collection so that no one else can read it. Overwhelmingly, we're seeing these challenges come from organized censorship groups that target local library board meetings to demand removal of a long list of books they share on social media," said Caldwell-Stone. "Their aim is to suppress the voices of those traditionally excluded from our nation's conversations, such as people in the LGBTQIA+ community or people of color."
In Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has led a nationwide effort by conservatives to keep public school students from learning accurate American history and discussing issues regarding the LGBTQ+ community, one county removed from school library shelves 176 books which have been held in storage since January 2022. The books include the children's books Hush! A Thai Lullaby, featuring a Thai mother and child, and Dim Sum for Everyone!, about a family eating in a Chinese restaurant.
"I've never seen anything like this," Caldwell-Stone told the Associated Press. "The last two years have been exhausting, frightening, outrage-inducing."
People for the American Way called the association's data, collected from media reports and library professionals across the country, "shocking but not surprising."
"The far right wants to turn back the clock on the freedom to read, teach, and learn," said the group. "We won't stand for it."
The ALA report comes four months after voters in at least two U.S. towns voted to cut or eliminate funding for their public libraries in the wake of campaigns to ban books with LGBTQ+ themes.
People in Jamestown Township, Michigan voted for a second time against a millage to fund 84% of their library's budget, dooming the facility to a likely closure in 2024. The vote followed a push by a local conservative group to remove the book Gender Queer: A Memoir.
Craighead County Jonesboro Library in Arkansas lost 50% of its funding after "librarians and library workers were labeled pornographers and pedophiles because of the books on their shelves" that dealt with LGBTQ+ themes, as EveryLibrary Institute executive director John Chrastka told Publishers Weekly in November.
A poll commissioned by the EveryLibrary Institute last year found that 75% of respondents were opposed to efforts to ban books, and across 16 states last fall, a majority of initiatives to pull funding from libraries failed.
"While a vocal minority stokes the flames of controversy around books, the vast majority of people across the nation are using life-changing services that public and school libraries offer," said ALA President Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada on Thursday. "Our nation cannot afford to lose the library workers who lift up their communities and safeguard our First Amendment freedom to read."
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Sneak Attack on Net Neutrality Picks Up Steam in Congress
Jun 19, 2015
"Maybe every so often we can be on the side of the American people," Rep. Jose Serrano said, "and not corporations."
Those are fighting words -- but unfortunately the House majority doesn't seem to be heeding them. Not when it comes to Net Neutrality.
On Wednesday, the House appropriations committee voted against two amendments -- one from Serrano, one from Rep. Nita Lowey -- to remove anti-Net Neutrality language from a must-pass government-funding package.
The anti-Net Neutrality provisions -- buried deep within this 158-page bill -- would strip the FCC of the money it needs to enforce its open Internet protections. The provisions would also prevent the rules from remaining in effect until after the court cases challenging them have been decided -- a process that could take years.
"You're not supposed to legislate in an appropriations bill," Serrano said, noting that a federal court had already rejected an attempt from the cable, phone and wireless lobbies to delay implementation of the rules.
But in spite of the overwhelming support for the open Internet-- support that spans the political spectrum -- some members of Congress are determined to destroy the historic FCC protections that millions of people lobbied for.
"Blocking Net Neutrality means blocking the open Internet," Serrano said. "My colleagues are trying to give corporations more freedom ... while putting more restrictions on individual citizens."
Indeed, members of Congress who are in the pocket of the big Internet service providers don't care about listening to the public on this matter. They don't care about the process the FCC followed to allow public comment on its proposal. They simply want to shut down the open Internet and carve it up into fast and slow lanes.
In the run-up to the vote a coalition of more than 60 digital rights and social justice groups urged the chairman and ranking member of the House appropriations committee to remove the anti-Net Neutrality riders (only the ranking member -- Rep. Lowey, a longtime Net Neutrality proponent -- listened).
Among the letter's signers are the Free Press Action Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Media Justice, ColorOfChange.org, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Media Action Grassroots Network, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, Public Knowledge and Writers Guild of America West. Other signers include the American Library Association, the Association of Free Community Papers and Etsy.
The funding package is inching closer to a vote before the full House, but there's still time for members to remove the anti-Net Neutrality provisions. Call Congress before it's too late.
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