The Department of Education has moved quickly to reverse course in its efforts to stem the tide of what it now describes as "so-called" school book bans. In a Friday announcement, the DOE said it was eliminating the position of book ban coordinator at the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and dismissing 11 outstanding civil rights complaints filed with the DOE when it was overseen by the Biden Administration.
“By dismissing these complaints and eliminating the position and authorities of a so-called ‘book ban coordinator,’ the department is beginning the process of restoring the fundamental rights of parents to direct their children’s education,” said acting assistant secretary for civil rights Craig Trainor in a statement. “The department adheres to the deeply rooted American principle that local control over public education best allows parents and teachers alike to assess the educational needs of their children and communities. Parents and school boards have broad discretion to fulfill that important responsibility. These decisions will no longer be second-guessed by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education.”
The news was immediately condemned by various book organizations. In its response, PEN America criticized the suggestion that books bans are a hoax. "Since 2021, we have meticulously recorded nearly 16,000 instances of book bans nationwide—where access to books is revoked from their intended readers—often without following commonsense processes and increasingly due to censorial legislation from states," PEN said in a statement.
“For over three years we have countered rhetoric that book bans occurring in public schools are a ‘hoax.’ They are absolutely not," added Kasey Meehan, Freedom to Read program director at PEN America. "This kind of language from the U.S. Department of Education is alarming and dismissive of the students, educators, librarians, and authors who have firsthand experiences of censorship happening within school libraries and classrooms."
In its statement, Authors Against Book Bans called the DOE action "a distortion of the intended work of the OCR—the protection of civil rights and students’ freedoms in our nation's schools—is negligent, grossly un-American, and in direct conflict with freedom of speech, a bedrock right enshrined in the Constitution." The organization stated that it "unequivocally stands against all such attempts at censorship and discrimination. We stand with families, students and educators across the country who exercise free speech every time they open a book, and with the 71% of Americans who are opposed to book bans. Book bans do not protect children; history teaches us that they are a terrifying step toward tyranny."
In its most recent report on school book bans, released in September, PEN counted more than 10,000 cases of book censorship in public schools during the 2023-2024 school year, nearly triple the number from the previous school year. PEN officials said that new state-level rules and legislation are the key drivers of the bans, with nearly 8,000 book bans recorded in Florida and Iowa, where two sweeping new laws have broadly targeted books that contain any sexual content.
The Association of American Publishers has a more nuanced view of the DOE action. "The Administration is broadly correct about the rights of parents and local communities when it comes to reading by minors," its statement reads. "But in recent years there have been over-broad restrictions from local legislatures that required litigation. The courts have been clear about the constitutional line, protecting age appropriate reading, rejecting compelled speech from the government, but also dismissing complaints that are in fact the community’s to decide." The AAP has worked to coordinate lawsuits filed against bans in Texas and Arkansas.