Gov. Murphy joins call to end rightwing book bans, censorship
Nine Democratic Party-aligned governors have signed onto a letter asserting their concerns about the censorship now taking place among school textbook publishers like McGraw Hill Education, Pearson, Cengage Learning, Goodheart-Willcox, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Routledge Taylor and Francis Group, Savvas Learning Co., Scholastic, and Teachers Curriculum Institute.
The governors of New Jersey (Phil Murphy), Illinois (JB Pritzker), Maryland (Wes Moore), U.S. Virgin Islands (Albert Bryan Jr.), Massachusetts (Maura Healey), New Mexico (Michelle Lujan Grisham), New York (Kathy Hochul), Rhode Island (Dan McKee), and Washington (Jay Inslee) all added their names to a letter challenging rightwing censorship.
“Sanitizing our educational texts for the mercurial comfort of a few today ultimately limits the next generation’s ability to make informed decisions for themselves,” the letter said. “Moreover, the negative impact that censorship and book-banning has on this nation’s students––many already marginalized and underrepresented in society––cannot be overstated during a time when we are facing an unprecedented youth mental health crisis. Each and every single student in the United States of America has the right to exist, to be seen, and to be represented. It is an important priority of our administrations to ensure that any educational materials censored to appeal to political pressure do not negatively impact our educational goals and values in our states.
“…please know that we will be working closely with all of our school districts to ensure they are fully informed of which texts include comprehensive and accurate educational information––and which have been inappropriately censored––when they consider procurement of instructional materials for the nearly 9 million students our states serve.”
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