10/5/2026
Texas and Florida drove a record year for public school book bans
PEN America counted 11,982 book bans in U.S. public schools in the 2025-26 school year, the most since it started tracking in 2021. More than 8,000 were in Texas, where a 2025 law set new rules for library books, and some districts used AI to pick titles.
Mary Johnson