FTLA Blog

Dear Advocates and the Freedom to Learn Community, 

As we start 2024, our team at FTLA wanted to update you on the fight for freedom to learn in our communities,  our progress and goals for 2024 and most importantly, how you can help by becoming a Founding Member of FTLAs Advocacy Corps! 

As you are probably aware, in the fight against book banning and censorship, some of the latest numbers are discouraging:

• From July 2021 to June 2022 there were 2,532 book bans of 1,648 titles across 32 states. 

• At least twenty-nine GOP-led state legislatures have already introduced restrictive bills to ban, censor, or punish educators and librarians for what they deem “dangerous” literature. 

• Advocacy group, and FTLA partner, PEN America estimates that at least 40 percent of bans are connected to either proposed or enacted legislation, or to political pressure exerted by state officials or elected lawmakers to restrict the teaching or presence of certain books or concepts.

• In just the past two years over 50 well funded and coordinated groups have been created that explicitly push their political agendas in our communities to ban books and persecute our educators and librarians. 

However, despite these numbers we believe there is reason to be hopeful. 

Recent research shows that 71% of voters oppose efforts to remove books from public libraries and 67% oppose efforts to remove books from school libraries.  Clearly, the vast majority of Americans believe that these efforts to censor and ban our kids books and punish our librarians and educators is wrong.

With your support, FTLA stands ready to fight back and will work tirelessly with our partners in this fight.  Including the American Library Association, National Education Association, National Coalition Against Censorship, PEN America, Campaign for Our Shared Future and many others who will resist what is becoming an increasingly troubling time for school districts, public libraries, and the publishing industry. 

Specifically, as 2024 unfolds, FTLA will work to:

1. Elect candidates who align with our values or defeat those who work against our beliefs to directly affect laws and procedures in your communities. 

1. Your partnership will allow us to impact public policy in state legislatures that ban important literature and perspectives, or seek to punish our educators, librarians and students.

1. Create a nationwide grassroots network of engaged, informed and impactful citizens who will ensure that our children and communities have the opportunity to understand alternative perspectives and have the freedom to learn.

1. Support coalition members and efforts to implement the kind of change we need in their own communities.

And now as FTLA prepares for the fight ahead in 2024, we need your help.  We can’t do this alone. We can’t beat back this rising tide of anti-education extremism and persecution of our librarians and teachers without your help.

You can become a founding member for FTLA and join our growing coalition of thousands of concerned citizens across the country by supporting our work with a financial donation.  

Your Founding Member donation will help us STOP efforts to infiltrate school boards and ban books, and your Membership will put you at the FRONTLINE of the battle to stop this unAmerican agenda once and for all!!!  

Please click here if you’d like to contribute!  

As a founding member of our Advocacy Corp, you’ll be a crucial part of our effort to advocate for students, parents, teachers, librarians, and your community against the right-wing assault on books and education

 You can also sign up and join our email list here so we can keep you updated on the most important developments in the fight against book banning in our communities

 Lastly, tell your friends, your family, your community!  Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook to help us grow and amplify our collective voices.  

 Our moment to step up and say “NO MORE” of this anti-teacher, anti-library agenda in our schools and libraries, is right now, TODAY.

 Together, we can beat back this tide of anti-democratic, unAmerican efforts to ban books and bring divisive, politically motivated culture wars to our communities. 

So, please, donate, join our growing community and become an advocate for the freedom to learn today!

Thank you!

 Team FTLA