Article by Jonathan Feingold & Joshua Weishart
The summer of 2020 ignited global protests for racial justice. Across the United States, millions marched with a modest plea: that America reckon with its racism. For K-12 schools, this moment pushed local communities and district leaders to create more inclusive classrooms and curricula. Yet before the summer ended, America's antiracist turn provoked a backlash campaign that has proven far more impactful and enduring.
This campaign has featured the rise and spread of “discriminatory censorship laws”--a term we apply to government action designed to demean inclusionary values and to deny students access to critical knowledge, inquiry, and thinking. As of January 2024, over twenty states and 145 school districts had enacted at least one discriminatory censorship law regulating K-12 schools. These laws cover over 1.3 million educators and nearly half the nation's 50 million public school students.
Many have analyzed the legality of discriminatory censorship laws. Few have systematically assessed their impact. This Article fills that gap by synthesizing otherwise siloed research. Drawing on this scholarship, we identify two overarching threats discriminatory censorship laws pose to students, educators, and public education writ large: (1) hostile learning environments and (2) miseducation. We also surface how discriminatory censorship laws have spread, notwithstanding their lack of popular support. Albeit unpopular, this ongoing campaign of discriminatory censorship is unlikely to relent absent an equally committed and coordinated response.
About the Author
Jonathan Feingold. Associate Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law.
Joshua Weishart. Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School.
Citation
99 Tul. L. Rev. 585