{"id":458865,"date":"2026-10-07T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458865\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T08:00:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T08:00:26","slug":"one-state-led-the-nation-in-banning-books-during-the-2025-2026-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/458865\/","title":{"rendered":"One State Led the Nation in Banning Books During the 2025-2026 School Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\tBrandon Bell \/ Getty Images\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tBy \"\"<\/a>
\nEmily Madriga<\/a>\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUpdated 9 hours ago,
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 6, 2026<\/p>\n

Nationwide, PEN America counted nearly 12,000 bans, a record annual total affecting more than 7,000 distinct titles and 4,000 authors. Those figures count bans, so the same title can be counted in multiple schools or districts.<\/p>\n

Texas recorded 8,100 public-school book bans during the 2025-2026 school year, taking the top spot after Florida had led for 3 years. Florida ranked 2nd with more than 3,200 bans.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Texas State Capitol building in Austin, photographed on August 14, 2025. Photo by Brandon Bell \/ Getty Images.<\/p>\n

PEN America linked the increase to new state censorship laws, including a Texas law restricting broad categories of books. The organization said vague rules and pressure from politicians can lead districts to remove books beyond what the laws require. AI tools can reinforce the pattern by flagging titles already banned elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnsure how to comply, districts are removing books en masse, sometimes with the \u2018help\u2019 of crude AI tools that only make the problem worse,\u201d said Philomena Polefrone, a senior manager in PEN America\u2019s Freedom to Read program.<\/p>\n

Thousands of cases came to light through public information requests made by Florida Freedom to Read and Texas Freedom to Read, Polefrone said. Taxpayer-funded books can disappear from school shelves without local communities knowing they\u2019ve been removed.<\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen King at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto for the 2024 TIFF premiere of \u201cThe Life of Chuck\u201d on September 6, 2024. Photo by Olivia Wong \/ Getty Images.<\/p>\n

Fiction accounted for more than 90% of the banned books, with young adult books and manga among the affected categories. Stephen King was the most banned author for the 2nd consecutive year.<\/p>\n

Patricia McCormick\u2019s Sold tells the story of a teenager from Nepal who\u2019s sold into sexual slavery. The 2006 National Book Award finalist was the title banned most often.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchools should be doing everything possible to connect kids with reading by introducing them to engaging stories and formats,\u201d said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America\u2019s Freedom to Read program.<\/p>\n

Stay in the loop with Thought Catalog \u2014 follow us on Facebook<\/a> or visit our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Bell \/ Getty Images By Emily Madriga Updated 9 hours ago, October 6, 2026 Nationwide, PEN America…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-458865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}