What American Students Are No Longer Allowed to Learn
Students across the United States are discovering that some of the most urgent questions about who they are, where they come from, and how power works in this country are suddenly off-limits in class.
From “divisive concepts” laws to mass book removals, a growing education divide is emerging—not only between rich and poor districts, but between students who are allowed to engage honestly with race, gender, and history, and those who are not.
A new phase of classroom censorship
In just a few years, public education has shifted from debates over standards and testing to open battles over which ideas students may encounter at all. Since 2021, at least 18 states have passed laws restricting how schools discuss slavery, race, gender, and racism, often framed as bans on “divisive concepts” or “critical race theory.” Many of these laws are written so broadly and vaguely that teachers say they feel pressured to avoid frank conversations about discrimination, civil rights, or contemporary inequality altogether.
At the same time, “parents’ rights” campaigns and organized activist groups have flooded school boards with book challenges, targeting titles that address racism, LGBTQ+ identities, and America’s more uncomfortable histories. Free-expression advocates now describe book censorship in schools as “rampant and common,” no longer confined to isolated controversies but embedded in district policy and state law.
What’s actually being banned
The numbers behind this wave are staggering. PEN America’s latest index of school book bans recorded 10,046 bans in the 2023–24 school year alone—more than double the previous year and affecting over 4,200 unique titles. Over the last several years, the same group has counted close to 16,000 instances of school book bans nationwide, with Florida and Iowa among the states leading in removals due to new censorship laws.
These bans are not ideologically neutral. A large share of removed books center on race and racism, or feature LGBTQ+ characters and themes, including frequently targeted titles such as “Gender Queer: A Memoir” and “All Boys Aren’t Blue.” Human Rights Watch and civil rights groups report that thousands fewer books now sit on classroom and library shelves, disproportionately stripping away stories by Black authors, queer authors, and other marginalized voices.
Laws that narrow what history can say
Behind the headlines are concrete legal changes reshaping what teachers can say about American history. Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act” prohibits instruction that suggests individuals share responsibility for past injustices because of their race or identity, a rule that educators say has chilled lessons on Black history and systemic racism. The state has also blocked schools from offering the College Board’s AP African American Studies course and approved social studies standards that require teachers to emphasize supposed “benefits” enslaved people gained from slavery, a move that prompted national outrage from historians.
Similar “anti-CRT” or “divisive concepts” statutes in other states bar teaching that the United States is “fundamentally” or “inherently” racist, or restrict any instruction that might make students feel “discomfort” because of their race or sex. Legal scholars and academic freedom advocates argue that such laws function as “educational gag orders,” effectively deterring teachers from connecting past injustices—Jim Crow, redlining, mass incarceration—to present-day disparities.
The partisan and philosophical fault lines
Supporters of these measures often frame them as protections against indoctrination, arguing that K–12 students should not be compelled to affirm controversial ideas about privilege, guilt, or gender identity. Conservative think tanks note that some state laws explicitly prohibit schools from forcing students or staff to endorse concepts that conflict with civil rights protections, such as blanket claims that any race is inherently oppressive.
Critics counter that the “indoctrination” language is being used to erase discussions of real, documented discrimination and to sanitize the history of slavery, segregation, and ongoing inequality. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund points out that “critical race theory” itself is not taught in K–12 schools in any systematic way; instead, broad bans are sweeping up basic lessons on how racism has shaped policy in housing, education, and healthcare.
Who loses when ideas disappear
Educators warn that students are paying the price in missed opportunities to think critically about their world. Psychologists and education experts say that when schools remove stories with diverse characters or ban open discussion of gender identity, LGBTQ+ and students of color receive a clear message that their lives are controversial topics rather than normal parts of the curriculum. Research cited by professional associations suggests that these policies increase stigma, worsen mental health for marginalized students, and undermine a sense of belonging that is crucial for academic success.
There is also a civic cost. Human Rights Watch argues that laws downplaying slavery and racism “undermine democratic values,” because students cannot fully understand voting rights, criminal justice, or economic inequality without confronting how race and gender have shaped U.S. institutions. The NAACP similarly warns that erasing or diluting the history of oppression makes it harder for future citizens to recognize and resist discrimination when it appears in new forms.
An education gap that isn’t about tests
The result is a new and less visible education divide. Two students growing up in different states—or even neighboring districts—can now graduate with radically different understandings of American history and identity, not because of test-score gaps or funding differences, but because politically sensitive topics were either explored or banned. In some communities, students can take advanced courses in African American studies, read widely about gender and sexuality, and debate contemporary policy; in others, they may never see their identities reflected in textbooks, or learn how past injustices connect to current debates over policing, voting, or healthcare.
Civil rights advocates argue that this uneven access to knowledge functions as a form of miseducation, especially for low-income students and students of color who are least able to supplement their schooling with outside resources. When public schools withhold key facts about history and identity, families with money can turn to private schools, tutors, and curated libraries—while everyone else is stuck with a narrowed, state-approved narrative.
What families and communities can do
For now, the front lines of this fight are local. PEN America and library associations encourage parents, students, and educators to track book challenges through searchable databases and to speak at school board meetings when books are removed or courses are altered. National organizations like the American Library Association, NAACP, and civil liberties groups are also backing lawsuits that challenge the most sweeping censorship laws, arguing that they violate free-speech and equal-protection guarantees.
Even in restrictive states, some teachers are quietly finding ways to preserve honest discussion within the law, assigning supplemental readings, inviting guest speakers, or framing lessons in terms of primary-source analysis rather than explicit commentary. Student-led clubs and community groups are building their own “freedom libraries,” distributing banned titles and creating spaces where young people can ask hard questions about power, identity, and history without fear of punishment.
The takeaway
What students are no longer allowed to learn is not just a list of forbidden books or phrases; it is a narrowing of the collective story they are permitted to inherit. The real divide in American education now runs between those who are trusted with the full, complicated truth—and those offered a carefully edited version of it, with the hardest chapters torn out.
For readers who want to explore the data and advocacy work behind these trends, key starting points include PEN America’s “Banned in the USA” reports, Human Rights Watch’s analysis of school censorship, the NAACP’s resolutions on miseducation, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund’s FAQ on critical race theory
