The GOP’s nationwide war on public education—specifically the teaching of race, U.S. history, and LGBTQ+ identities—has led to a 250% spike in state-level “educational gag order” bills this year, according to a report published Wednesday by the free expression group PEN America.

“This year’s bills have been strikingly more punitive.”

Titled America’s Censored Classrooms, the new report finds that lawmakers in 36 different U.S. states have introduced 137 gag order measures in 2022, up from 54 such bills last year. With the exception of a single Democratic bill in Arizona, all of the gag order proposals unveiled this year have been led by Republican legislators.

The analysis defines educational gag orders as “state legislative efforts to restrict teaching about topics such as race, gender, American history, and LGBTQ+ identities in K–12 and higher education.”

“Our report documents in alarming detail the threats to how young people learn and are taught in American schools,” said PEN America CEO […]