School Book Bans Hit Record High of Nearly 12000
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What happened
On Monday, the free-expression group PEN America released a report stating that U.S. public schools recorded 11,982 book removals in the 2025-2026 school year, the highest annual total since the organization began counting in 2021 and up from 6,870 the prior year. The report listed 7,370 unique titles involving more than 4,000 authors, illustrators and translators, across 114 school districts. Texas accounted for more than 8,100 of the instances, which PEN America tied to state law SB13; Florida had ranked first in the three previous years. The most frequently removed title was Patricia McCormick’s young-adult novel Sold; Stephen King was named the most frequently removed author for a second consecutive year. PEN America said new state laws and artificial-intelligence screening tools drove much of the increase.
Sourcing check · Fully on the record · 3 articles
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BLINDSPOT.
Only left-leaning outlets are covering this story
— the other side's media is silent.
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
Right-leaning outlets had not covered this as of publication, so the gap is the record itself. Left-leaning coverage reports that public schools logged nearly 12,000 book bans in the 2025-2026 year, a total The Hill calls a big jump from the prior year. Much of the rise is tied by the Guardian to Texas law SB13 and to artificial intelligence tools that strip many titles at once. A reader of the silent side never learns the peak, the jump, or that stated mix of statute and software.
Left-leaning outlets also disagree on emphasis: the Washington Post leads with a plot quiz and objections such as sexual content, while the Guardian leads with the national total and the Texas law.
How many of those removals were required by statute rather than a local vote?
Bottom line
A right-leaning reader would not know The Hill counted 11,982 school book bans last year, the record left-leaning coverage is treating as news.
The receipts — 6 facts one side's coverage lacks
- Public schools logged nearly 12,000 book bans in the 2025-2026 school year
- 6,870 books were banned the previous school year
- Texas saw more than 8,100 book bans in the 2025-2026 school year
- 34,000 instances of book bans have been tallied since 2021
- 7,370 unique titles were taken out of classrooms
- 114 school districts banned books during the school year
The Left View
The Washington Post, The Guardian and The Hill all treat PEN America’s tally as a record of school “book bans” and a “book censorship crisis,” citing nearly 12,000 instances, more than 7,000 unique titles, 114 districts, Texas’s lead under SB13, and Florida’s prior ranking. They report objections centered on sexual content, profanity, racial slurs and stereotypes, note that fiction (including manga) made up most young-adult titles affected, and quote McCormick and PEN America’s Kasey Meehan calling the removals disrespectful to survivors and harmful to students’ reading, empathy and imagination. Coverage also notes parents, students and educators pushing back and progressive school-board candidates winning some Florida races.
Our Take (balanced)
The story is substantive: it rests on a named organization’s published report with specific, checkable figures, a named Texas statute (SB13), named titles and authors, and a stated year-over-year change. Established is that PEN America released those counts and attributions. Remaining PEN America’s own characterization—not independently audited in this coverage—is that every counted instance is a “ban,” that the methodology distinguishes censorship from age-appropriateness or parental-review processes, and that AI tools and SB13 caused the Texas surge. No right-leaning outlet has reported this. Watch for state education-agency or district tallies, the text and implementation of SB13, any competing title lists, and official responses from Texas and Florida school systems.
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