Contact: Malka Margolies, [email protected], 347-843-8210
(NEW YORK) – PEN America has released its new report, America’s Censored Classrooms 2024: Refining the Art of Censorship, unveiling a growing and sophisticated campaign to restrict academic freedom in the United States. The report warns that legislative efforts to curtail educational speech have evolved from overt gag orders into new stealth tactics that threaten higher education across the nation.
Since 2021, PEN America has monitored the introduction of “educational gag orders”—laws restricting what can be taught on campus and in classrooms about race, gender, and LGBTQ+ issues. This latest report presents new data and analysis from the 2024 state legislative sessions, with a focus on higher education, where censorship is becoming more insidious – including the forced closure of university cultural centers in Utah and the nation’s most extreme DEI ban in Iowa. Despite these dire trends, the report also identifies a growing resistance against extreme measures.
In addition to the report, PEN America also released an up-to-date, comprehensive Index of Educational Gag Orders, featuring all legislative restrictions introduced and passed in state legislatures over the past four years.
The 2024 report identifies a concerning shift in strategy by lawmakers and other proponents of educational censorship. Rather than blatant bans on controversial topics, these new tactics obscure their intent to impose devastating new restrictions on higher ed by labeling them with popular causes such as promoting “institutional neutrality” or “viewpoint diversity.”
Lawmakers also banned DEI offices in at least two new states, Utah and Iowa, and restricted faculty control over curriculum and teaching. These efforts are increasingly difficult to challenge and have succeeded in enacting some of the most damaging restrictions to date. This strategy has allowed censorship to fly under the radar, even as its harmful effects on academic freedom and campus free speech intensify, according to the report’s authors, Jeffrey Adam Sachs and Jeremy C. Young.
“This is censorship by another name,” said Young, PEN America’s Freedom to Learn program director and lead staff author on the report.“What’s occurring in our universities is a coordinated assault on free expression, now obscured by claims of fairness and neutrality, making it harder to combat.” He added that in 2024, lawmakers engaged in “jawboning,” bullying and threatening university presidents into restricting their own programs without even passing a law.
Key Findings: The Numbers Behind the Censorship
The report documents troubling statistics regarding censorship efforts:
- Seven new gag orders became law this year, and an eighth was implemented through executive action. A total of 56 educational gag orders were filed in state legislatures in 2024, a decrease from previous years, but a higher percentage became law.
- Higher education is now a primary focus of these gag orders, for the first time tying with K-12 schools among laws and policies enacted.
- In addition to educational gag orders, 29 bills with additional provisions targeting higher education institutions were introduced – the highest percentage of these bills ever proposed in a single year, seeking to erode the infrastructure that protects academic freedom, such as tenure, faculty shared governance, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Five of these bills became law.
A Shift in Tactics: How Educational Censorship Went Underground
As outlined in the report, proponents of censorship have adapted in response to widespread opposition and legal challenges, and experimented with more subtle avenues. For example, the once overt rhetoric of “anti-wokeness” has been replaced by calls for mandatory “institutional neutrality” or curricular changes. Legislators now use the following tactics:
- Disguising Censorship: Attaching gag orders to popular causes like “viewpoint diversity” allows censorship to appear more palatable.
- Undermining Academic Structures: New bills focus on dismantling the systems that protect academic freedom, such as attacking tenure and shared governance.
- “Jawboning” – Informal Bullying and Pressure: In many cases, lawmakers bully universities into imposing restrictions without the need for legislation.
In addition to these threats, the report highlights encouraging trends. Activism against educational gag orders has intensified, with legal challenges leading to significant victories in court. In some states, public outcry has forced legislators to rethink or abandon proposed laws. Gag orders are deeply unpopular, and political resistance against them is growing, with some notable successes around the country.
PEN America’s America’s Censored Classrooms 2024 concludes with a warning: educational censorship will continue escalating into 2025. “With lawmakers honing their strategies, the future of academic freedom hangs in the balance,” added Young. The report urges continued vigilance, activism, and legal action to combat these rising threats.
About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect free expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. Learn more at pen.org