Story by Jared Gans • Yesterday
About half of Republicans oppose book bans: poll© Provided by The Hill
About half of all Republicans oppose banning books in schools, even as many GOP lawmakers throughout the country have implemented laws restricting materials being taught in the classroom, according to a poll released Friday.
The NPR/Ipsos poll shows 51 percent of Republicans oppose state lawmakers passing laws to ban certain books and remove them from classrooms and libraries, including 31 percent who said they strongly oppose it. More than 45 percent also said they oppose individual school boards banning books.
About a third of Republican respondents said they support state lawmakers passing laws on books bans, while about 40 percent said they support school boards taking action.
An analysis from PEN America released in April found that 1,477 book bans were put into place during the first half of the 2022-23 school year, covering 874 unique books. States with the most book bans — Texas, Florida, Missouri, Utah and South Carolina — have all implemented laws that at least somewhat restrict content allowed to be present in public school libraries.
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Many Republicans have aimed to ban books referencing the LGBTQ community, claiming their contents are pornographic or subject children to inappropriate topics. Some have also targeted books that discuss racism and race relations.
But pollsters found that respondents were generally not supportive of book bans. About two-thirds of respondents said they somewhat or strongly oppose state lawmakers or school boards approving book bans.
Almost 60 percent of K-12 parents polled said they oppose book bans from school boards, and two-thirds said they oppose state lawmakers’ bans.
Democrats and independents were even more opposed to book bans; About 85 percent of Democrats said they oppose bans from school boards and lawmakers, and about two-thirds of independents said the same.
The poll was conducted among 1,316 U.S. adults, including 452 parents of K-12 students, from May 5-11. The margin of error for the entire sample was 3 percentage points, and the margin for K-12 parents was 4.8 points.
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