FL Book Bans Leads U.S. For Second Year In A Row: PEN America

FLORIDA — For the second year in a row, Florida led the U.S. in book bans.

During the 2023-24 school year, PEN America, a nonprofit advocacy group working to protect the freedom to read, write and learn, recorded 10,046 instances of book bans involving more than 4,000 unique titles across the country. Books were banned in 29 states and 220 public school districts.

The Sunshine State was responsible for more than 4,500 or more than 45 percent of all bans, the report said. Thirty-three school districts in the state banned books during the school year.

Iowa was the state with the second-highest number of book bans with more than 3,600.

In addition to Florida and Iowa, several states recorded 100 book bans or more — 538 in Texas, 408 in Wisconsin, 121 in Virginia and 100 in Kentucky.

“Since 2021 a movement to ban books has put students’ freedom to read in jeopardy, advancing extreme conservative viewpoints about what is appropriate and allowable in schools,” PEN America said. “Through local campaigns and state laws, this movement has placed tremendous pressures on school districts, administrators, librarians, and educators, and impacted an astonishing array of books and subjects, from new picture books or young adult novels to literary classics — from ‘Captain Underpants’ to ‘Roots, from ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.”

Book banning increased in Florida after a new law, HB 1069, went into effect in July 2023 and created a statutory process for book banning. The law requires that any book challenged for “sexual conduct” must be removed during its review process.

“We have seen a range of policy changes and new state laws, designed to suppress education about certain viewpoints, identities, and histories; namely, concerning people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and sex. This broad campaign uses falsehoods, fear, and hatred to dehumanize, dismiss, and diminish important voices in the public sphere — and these efforts are reshaping American public education,” the organization said.

An analysis of all books banned in the U.S. last year found that:

• 57 percent included sex or sex-related topics and content
• 44 percent included characters or people of color
• 39 percent included LGBTQ+ characters or people

“There is a dark movement across this country to build up distrust in our public schools and the educational professionals that support them,” the Florida Freedom to Read Project posted in a comment to X, formerly Twitter. “They are calling for censorship of certain ideas and passing laws that allow extremists to redefine what is ‘age appropriate’ for all.”