Dear People For Supporter,
It’s become clear that the far-right extremists aiming to seize control of Congress this fall don’t plan to run on the real issues affecting Americans’ daily lives.
Instead, they’re fanning the flames of racism and hatred – and mounting a concerted attack on the freedom to learn in our public schools, including book bans, gag orders on what can be discussed in classrooms, and outright censorship of what kids are taught about American history.
For example, a recent report from PEN America found an unprecedented and alarming increase in book bannings in schools across the country over the past year, with 1,586 book bans enacted across 86 school districts in 26 separate states – with books about race, gender, LGBTQ+ identities and sex most frequently targeted.[1]
Since January 2021, 42 states have introduced bills or taken other steps that would restrict or limit how teachers can discuss racism and sexism.[2]
Even more disturbingly, after Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia issued an executive order forbidding the teaching of “divisive concepts” about race, he also set up a “tip line” for citizens to report teachers who mention these topics.[3]
Asking people to inform on their neighbors is, of course, a hallmark of authoritarian regimes everywhere.
People For has been an advocate for the freedom to learn for decades. We have always believed that students can only flourish and be prepared for citizenship if they receive full and accurate instruction in school. And we have a decades-long track record of beating back the Far Right’s culture war attacks in education – including their attempts to ban books, undermine science education, discriminate against LGBTQ youth, and use schools to proselytize and impose their religious views on students.
We recently joined with the NAACP and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights to launch a campaign called “Black History is American History” in Virginia ... but we have a lot more work ahead of us to fight this growing nationwide trend.
What’s especially disturbing about the Far Right’s new wave of attacks on the freedom to learn is that they are largely based on, and fueled by, a misinformation campaign being spread through far-right media channels. For example, Critical Race Theory is not currently present in elementary or secondary school curricula; it’s a graduate-level academic theory that’s simply not used at the K-12 level. But sadly, to politicians eager to weaponize these attacks on a comprehensive – and accurate – public education, the truth doesn’t seem to matter.
When far-right politicians try to censor history, and fear is used to whitewash lesson plans and deprive kids of comprehensive and accurate information, we ALL lose.
We thank you in advance for any contribution you can make today towards our work, and we’ll keep you posted with activism opportunities and other news as this campaign progresses.
All the best,
Ben Jealous, President
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Sources:
1. "Report: 1,586 School Book Bans and Restrictions In 86 School Districts Across 26 States," PEN America, 04/07/22
2. "Map: Where Critical Race Theory Is Under Attack," Education Week, updated 04/12/22
3. "Youngkin’s ‘tip line’ to snitch on teachers suffers from this, too," Washington Post, 01/28/22
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