New Report Shows Right-Wing School Boards Responsible for Book Banning, Censorship and Anti-LGBTQ Policies Across Pa,

The past decade has seen a rise in school boards adopting policies that censor books, squelch anti-racist policies, limit student expression, and step on the rights of LGBTQ students. A new report by School Board Spotlight looks at how widespread that sort of repressive behavior is among Pennsylvania districts.

SBS is a project of the Pipeline Education Fund. According to its website, it “empowers grassroots organizations with information on school board members, districts, and populations served so they know where to focus their efforts around school boards in a strategic and impactful way.” SBS notes that school board members oversee $800 billion in funds and 51 million students. Says the website:

They are the closest policymakers to our students with critical decision-making power on curriculum, school funding, and other academic, legal, and financial issues that affect student lives and public education.

SBS is a response to the rise of repressive school policies that are part of the right-wing culture panic wave that has been sweeping the nation since the days of the COVID shutdowns. From Chris Rufos’s ginned up panic about Critical Race Theory through outrage over DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies, and with constant bigoted background noise about LGBTQ persons, school boards have been trying to impose a set of exclusionary cultural rules on schools, students, and teachers under a banner of “parental rights.” In Pennsylvania, there’s even a legal shop – the Independence Law Center – that exists just to help school boards craft policies that impose a conservative straight white heterosexual Christianist world view while banning books and voices that might dissent. Because when the culture warriors say “parental rights,” what they really mean is only certain parents.



https://buckscountybeacon.com/2025/11/new-report-shows-right-wing-school-boards-responsible-for-book-banning-censorship-and-anti-lgbtq-policies-across-pennsylvania/