Republicans pushed almost 400 "education intimidation" bills in past two years.

Republican lawmakers in the United States have introduced nearly 400 "educational intimidation" bills (according to the article, link below) in the past two years, according to a report by PEN America. These bills indirectly censor what is taught in schools, creating an environment that pressures educators to be more timid in their teaching, restricts access to books in libraries, and limits student self-expression.

The report found that almost all of these bills were sponsored solely by Republicans. The legislation has resulted in book bans, harassment against educators, and a stifled educational environment for students.

The report identified Missouri as the state with the most educational intimidation bills introduced, followed by Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Indiana, and Mississippi. Florida has also passed several such bills, with Governor Ron DeSantis leading an assault on education under the guise of "parental rights."

These bills have led to the banning of books, including popular titles, and restricted discussions on race and sexuality in classrooms. The report highlights the detrimental impact of these bills on LGBTQ+ students and the negative effects on teachers and librarians. Despite this wave of legislation, the attack on education is unpopular with the majority of Americans, as shown by an NPR/Ipsos poll where 69 percent of respondents opposed bills to ban certain books and remove them from school libraries.

Personally, though I respect the fact that parents have a right to know what is the curriculum in schools, I'm not comfortable with parents exerting so much influence over school boards that the school boards feel they must cave to this right wing parent group to go so far as to ban books, it's smacks of fascism of the 30s/40s.

Education isn't a commodity that must cater to a market like they are pushing candy or soap. Education must lead, not follow. Modernity is a more enlightened, more diverse society than the time I grew up in the 50s and 60s.

I recall vividly my state of mind as a child, and I wouldn't have been affected negatively, as a child, by the books they want banned, I would have been amused, my mind opened by them. I think conservative parents and Republicans are doing the same thing they accuse liberals of, indoctrinating children into one type of thinking. I think having a diverse selection of books is the key to UN-indoctrinate kids, not indoctrinate them. Keep all books, conservative, provocative, liberal, pushing-the-envelope, whatever, publish it all and let kids and people decide for themselves what they want to believe.

Now, that being said, there are pulp porn type books that are probably not appropriate, I mean, a book should be considered as 'literature' if fiction, or if non-fiction, accurately written with a scholarly approach to a subject, especially if it's a controversial subject.

Of course, I suspect Repubs are arguing that they are conforming to that idea, but are they, really? I don't know, I'm just asking the question.

So, do you think the title of this article (the headline of the OP) is a fair characterization of what Republicans in state legislatures have been doing in the last few years?

I mean, Repubs think all Dems want to do is ban guns, but they want to ban books? Is it just me or is this just plumb crazy?

https://theintercept.com/2023/08/23/school-censorship-bills-pen-america/

AS STUDENTS ACROSS the country grapple with mass shootings and the looming threat of a decimated planet, Republican lawmakers have trained their energy instead on education.

Over the last two-and-a-half years, state lawmakers introduced 392 so-called educational intimidation bills, according to a report from PEN America published on Wednesday. As of earlier this summer, only four state legislatures had not seen this type of bill, according to the report, which spans legislative activity from January 2021 to June 2023. All but 15 of the bills were sponsored solely by Republicans.

The wave of legislation documented in the report is complementary to but distinct from “educational gag orders” that explicitly ban materials and content, the authors wrote. Educational intimidation bills create “the conditions for censorship indirectly, threatening the freedoms to teach and learn with death by a thousand cuts.” Such efforts, the authors explain, “pressure educators to be more timid in the content they teach, pressure librarians to be more restrictive in the books they make available to students, and pressure students to limit their self-expression.”


Leejah Miller, a lawyer on YouTube weighs in:

 

One unfortunate aspect of this being some of the board's conservatives will read your post and think, great news. Based on some lie they've been told about grooming, or some misinformation about trans kids, or just the feeling they get from "owning the libs."

We can do something about it. Find a bookmobile servicing areas where books are banned and contribute to it. https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2023/03/07/bookmobile-book-banning-desantis-florida-texas-h-l-m-lee

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/the-recast/2023/07/05/moveon-banned-books-bus-tour-00104738

 

Thanks.

I forgot to stress how 'right on' Leejah Miller's video on the subject was, it goes far more in depth than the article I linked to did.

 

It's long past time that teachers fought back. They should consider taking action by district and school. Parents can be informed of how teachers are delivering the curriculum. Meet with parents. Have open houses and talk about the school environment.

Most parents will understand the rightwing claims about schools are exaggeration mixed with outright lies. Teachers are not telling white kids they should be ashamed of being white. Nor are they telling kids racism will never go away.

The law in Florida.

https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1557/BillText/er/PDF

It's a blueprint for harassing teachers. Florida is 49th of 50 states for teacher pay. Home prices went up 40% in 2021-22. Mix that with teacher harassment and you have a teacher shortage.

Book banning is the least of it.

 

So for most of the last 50 years liberals have been forcing their philosophy on the school systems and conservatives finally woke up (pun intended) and are fighting back.

 

How does this work? Conservatives skipped voting in school board elections?

Ideologue rightwing extremists should understand most parents of school children are younger and more liberal than they are. Schools are responding to the wishes of those parents who aren't going ape over LGBTQ.

 

OH NO! Republicans don't want PORN BOOKS in ELEMENTARY SCHOOL libraries!
Quick, call the national guard!

 

When the kids can actually read and do math on grade level maybe then these incompetent morons can be allowed to teach something else but even then primers on gay and other sex are very much out of place in elementary school libraries. And note it is the voluminous complaints from parents to which the law makers are responding. Oh and I hope like hell they get really timid about teaching this gender fluidity nonsense to gradeschoolers. Little kids have enough on their plates without the adults in their lives shoveling even more confusion their way.

 

We should double down on the current educational model. We are leading the planet in quality of education and states like CA that have little right wing influence are showing how their ideas on education are superior to other states.

We don’t need to be reverting back to a time the basics of reading, writing and math were more important than discussing “decimating” the planet etc. Parents should just accept the wildly successful public education system and be thankful their kids can be part of the best educational system on the planet.

 

Government run schools = censorship.

 

You folks think two homosexuals kissing is porn.

You're living in the past.

 

No, I think people of ANY gender performing ORAL sex in a book and any references to it crosses into porn territory.
You're living in a bubble.

 

Can you list one that is unreasonable in your opinion?

 

So what you’re saying is conservatives sat on their hands not being involved in their own kids schools for 50 years? Shame on them. Hopefully they’ve learn a lesson on what happens when one doesn’t bother getting involved in their owns kids future.

 

Legislating political agenda. That is what authoritarianism is all about: Use the strong arm of the government to cram political agenda down the kids throats, while threatening the educators.

IMO people like DeSantis overplayed this card, and it paying the price in the polls.

 

the founders were mostly based on the enlightenment, Liberalism is much more intune with that philosophy, looking back to the past will never advance anybody. it is true when newer ideas are proposed their likely will be a few bad ideas

 

You figure kids should read what? Kids are more enthusiastic about practicing reading skills when the material interests them.

That's why schools aren't circulating them.

Ginned up BS from extreme rightwing types?

They're not "teaching" this stuff to students. You're repeating lies you've been told.

You should keep that it mind when you make teachers a threat instead of trusted figures.

 

Yeah but liberalism doesn't define the left anymore. its been replaced with marxism
I would say more republicans fit the true definition of liberals these days

 

You know, school choice would solve that. Let the parents use the tax money to send their kids anywhere they want. You want your kid to be fully briefed on the 115,000 current genders they can choose along with details of anal sex all before they're a double digit age, send them somewhere that will teach them that. Don't want that? Send them somewhere else.

Pretty simple.

 

Yeah, called the "real world." Kids have had access to online porn for decades.

Schools aren't talking up "how to do IT..."

 

Essentially yes, they did sit on their hands. They trusted the system to do their jobs properly. And yes, they have learned their lesson...hence the backlash that you are now seeing.

 

well im still a 67yr old liberal, and i only know about myself, quit watching anything on TV 20 years ago , no news other than whats highlighted on my web home page, which i then may research on the whole internet, you msot certainly are not refering to trumps MAGA people, the few magas i know are good people, but one cannot have a conversation about anything involving history, they dont appear to have ever valued or read a book, so im led to believe your comment is directed towards the radical liberals who get all the RW media distorted focus

 

You should watch video's of parents talking to school boards. They're reading material that they got from the school libraries to the school board members...and the school board members are telling them that "there are children present and this is not appropriate for them to hear" or something similar. Essentially forbidding the parent to continue reading the books during the rest of the meeting. They may not be "talking up", but they sure as hell are talking.

And the excuse of "Kids have had access to online porn for decades" is not a valid excuse. We're talking about schools, not online porn. Even programmers have recognized that parents have a right to censor what their kids see online and have provided tools to parents to help prevent kids from seeing porn. Does that mean parents are 100% successful? Nope. Not even close. But that isn't the point. The point is that they have a right, as parents, to determine whether their kids have access to such material whenever, and wherever, they can.

 

I had access to peoples older brothers hustlers, playboys, penthouses and even a VHS copy of debbie does dallas. That doesn't mean they should have put them in the elementary school library
Your reasoning is weak but hey, its free speech country and if you think porn for kids is OK then I suppose its your right. Just don't try and shove that twisted ideology down my throat, CAPISCE??

 

Oh they read plenty! The only difference is, they read 1984 as a work of FICTION and YA'LL read it as if it is a MANUAL.
The only difference between reading on the right and left is we don't try and make fictional things happen in real life.