Dear Colleague,
Opposition to educational gag orders (EGOs) is ramping up. We’d love for you to join us in this work.
A wave of states has introduced broadly similar legislation that would restrict K–12 teachers and college faculty across disciplines from talking about “divisive topics” and teaching about the role of racism in US history and society. These educational gag order bills have the potential to chill the free exchange of ideas at universities and colleges and to violate core AAUP principles.
For a list of all the active bills we’re tracking, visit our Educational Gag Orders dashboard. There’s also the EGO resource page where you can access our draft op-ed, model legislative resolution, and other resources.
Please join the AAUP today to help with this fight against efforts to suppress the rights of faculty.
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Here’s a sampling of some of the work we’re doing at the state level:
University of South Carolina (U of SC) faculty showed up in force to a state committee hearing where educational gag orders were the only bills on the agenda. Several U of SC faculty members gave testimony, speaking strongly against these censorship bills. Our coalition partners at ACLU SC and NAACP Legal Defense Fund gave testimony as well. When all was said and done, the ratio of “opposed” to “in favor” testimony was more than four-to-one.
In Indiana, a hearing on HB 1134 drew over two hundred people, who showed up to voice their opposition to the proposed educational censorship. The state House committee chamber was so packed that several people were unable to get inside. The Indiana Senate has pulled its version of the EGO, and the House version, though still active, has been significantly watered down. There’s consensus among members of our education coalition that continued pressure on Indiana lawmakers could successfully defeat the bill.
Missouri’s coalition is continuing to apply pressure, culminating in a lobby day that’s planned for March 3. The sole focus will be that state’s educational gag orders. There’s currently an effort among some legislators to combine several of the bills (Missouri has over a dozen) into one omnibus and remove the most extreme language. It’s a step in the right direction, but we’ll continue working to defeat the bills outright.
Those are just three examples of the groundswell of opposition we’re seeing across the country. Members of the education community, along with concerned parents and students, are speaking out against educational gag orders in Wisconsin, Georgia, Alabama, West Virginia, and New York—to name just a few of the places where we’re seeing increased resistance.
Here’s one more good resource: We recently held a webinar entitled Working With the Faculty Senate to Fight Educational Gag Orders, led by Valerie Johnson and Jennifer Ruth of the African American Policy Forum. Here are links to the webinar recording
Join today.
In solidarity,
Stephanie Lamore, AAUP Government Relations
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