Report · July 2023 · Co-published by the Educational Freedom Institute and The Heritage Foundation
by Jay P. Greene, PhD, Max Eden, and Madison Marino
PEN America is the main source for claims of widespread book banning in American schools, but its definition of a “ban” includes any action that restricts or diminishes access, such as moving a book to another section, a temporary removal pending review, or taking it off a reading list. This report tests those claims against the common meaning of “banned”: made unavailable.
Key findings
- The authors checked PEN America’s 2021–2022 index against public school library card catalogs: of 1,868 listed books in districts with public catalogs, 1,378 (74%) were still listed as available in the same districts.
- 80% of the books labeled “Banned – Pending Investigation” (1,015 of 1,261) and 42% of those labeled “Banned – In Libraries” or “In Libraries and Classrooms” (363 of 853) were present in school libraries.
- Of the 490 books no longer available, 203 were in Texas and 174 in Florida, leaving 113 elsewhere among more than 10,000 school districts.
- Three districts account for 47% of PEN’s national count of 2,532 “bans.” A random sample of PEN’s May 2023 report gave largely similar results.
Jay P. Greene is the Managing Senior Fellow at the Educational Freedom Institute and a Senior Research Fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy. Max Eden is a Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Madison Marino is a research associate and project coordinator at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy.