Dear John,

Public education is under attack.

In recent years, right-wing extremists have escalated a campaign to advance their discriminatory agenda through our public school classrooms. They are erasing our nation’s complex history of racism and misogyny, alienating LGBTQIA+ students and teachers, removing culturally relevant curricula, and banning books that help students foster critical thinking skills and learn the truth about our history. PEN America has tracked more than 10,000 instances of book bans in school districts across the country in the 2023-24 school year alone. Join us this Banned Books Week to fight against these attempts to undermine our public education!

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s Books Save Lives Act aims to shift power over classroom instruction and library content back to our public educators and librarians, helping to foster inclusive learning environments for all students. The bill would:

• Guarantee that primary and secondary schools have a library staffed by a trained librarian
• Mandate that public and school libraries maintain a diverse and inclusive book collection
• Recognize discriminatory book bans as violations of federal civil rights laws

Students need safe and inclusive learning environments to thrive—and teachers need to be able to tell the truth without fear of losing their jobs. However, pro-censorship extremists are working against teachers and education experts to strip schools of inclusive materials and lessons. Ultimately, this limits students’ exposure to diverse representation and accurate history and makes it harder for teachers to stay in jobs they love.

It's up to each of us, as community members, to play a part in shaping the future of our education system. Today's students are tomorrow's workers, leaders, and voters, and we all have a stake in their success. Take action now!

In solidarity,

Julie Vogtman
she/her/hers
Senior Director of Job Quality
National Women's Law Center

P.S. Read our new report, "I Don’t Know How Much Longer I Can Do This": Teachers’ Experiences Amid Attacks on Public Education, which shares teachers’ own accounts of what it’s like to work in states where they face extremist restrictions in their classrooms.