Monday, April 7 is Right to Read Day — a day to celebrate and defend our freedom to read while we also bring attention to the rising, extremist attempts to take it away. We are a partner with Unite Against Book Bans, a program of the American Library Association, and...
book bans
Watch This: The Right to Read is Under Attack
We are proud to be one of more than 200 organizations and tens of thousands of individuals who make up the American Library Association's Unite Against Book Bans. Together, we’re helping our communities advocate for the freedom to read. On April 7, 2025, we’re...
Read This: A New Era of Fighting Book Bans
In a few weeks, we’ll celebrate Right to Read Day as part of National Library Week. National Library Week celebrates how reading and libraries enrich our lives and communities. It started in the 1950s over concerns that Americans were reading less and spending more...
Do This: Get Your Copy of the Costs of Conflict Report!
We’ve learned that extremism cost our public schools $3.2 billion last year. Now we’re also seeing that President Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon fully intend to defund and destroy the U.S. Department of Education entirely. That means our public schools...
Watch This: The Costs of Conflict
A new research report found that extremist attacks on schools and teachers — from book bans to new laws controlling what is taught about race and history — cost our public schools $3.2 billion last year alone! Watch this short video to hear directly from one of the...
Read This: The Costs of Conflict
Between 2021 and 2024, more than 300 bills were introduced in state legislatures to ban books, restrict schools from teaching about race and racism, and set restrictive policies for LGBTQ+ students. It’s all part of an extremist effort to attack our public schools...
Do This: The Growing Movement to Ban Books
We know that book bans are on the rise at a shocking pace, and we know how bad that is for our children’s education and well being. Now, do you want some good news? The majority of Americans agree — book banning is bad for all of us. More than 80% of Americans...
‘It’s an act of resistance:’ Groups ramp up efforts in the fight to stop book bans
WASHINGTON – They signed in for the online “Troublemaker Training’’ from places like Colorado, Michigan, New York and Tennessee. More than 70 attendees got tips on talking points they could use in the fight against book bans in their communities. “Book banning… seems...
Parents push for parental rights when it comes to school books
“When our children don't get to see people who look like them in the stories they are reading at school then they have to think well, maybe I'm not a part of this society. Maybe I'm not a part of this world.” Proud of our very own Julie Collins and Katie Paris,...
‘Blue’ suburban moms are mobilizing to counter conservatives in fights over masks, book bans and diversity education
Source: The Washington Post. Dozens of suburban moms from around the country dialed into an Ohio-based Zoom training session last month with the same goal — to learn how to combat the increasingly vitriolic rhetoric from parents whose protests over mask mandates and...
Recent Posts
Watch This: Supporting the Transgender Community
Extremist politicians have been stepping up their efforts to demonize transgender people and take away their rights. Through new laws, lawsuits, and executive orders, they are denying the existence of trans people and trying to keep them from living full and happy...
Okay, But Why Is ICE Detaining Children?
During the presidential election, Trump pledged to crack down on immigration, but he claimed he was only talking about criminals. But over the last several months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been increasingly targeting people who are legally following the U.S. immigration process. Some of them are just kids. So we have to ask: why is ICE targeting people who aren’t criminals, and why are they targeting children?
Okay, But Why Are We Still Talking About Racism?
Most of us can agree that America has a racist past. We enslaved other human beings, and even after the Civil War, injustices like lynching and Jim Crow laws persisted. But despite a troubling resurgence of white supremacy groups — a nearly 50% increase since 2022 — many Americans believe that racism is all in the past. “This is America,” we might think, “Everyone has an equal opportunity, right?” Or, talking about race or “seeing color” may feel like what is actually racist. So, why do we still need to talk about racism?
Okay, But Why Are They Defunding the Weather Service?
If you’re like many Americans, one of the first things you do every morning is check the weather. And we definitely pay attention when there’s extreme weather – like hurricanes, blizzards, and tornadoes – on the horizon, putting our lives and property in jeopardy. Whether you get it from your phone, the morning news, or a Google search, that information all comes from the same place: the Weather Service, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). So why is the Trump administration getting rid of it?
Okay, But Why Do We Need Community More Than Ever?
Right now, many of us are feeling a ton of stress and anxiety. Add that to the rise in loneliness in our country, and it creates a toxic soup that isn’t just bad for our mood, it’s bad for our physical health too. The good news is, community connection can help with both of these problems! In these chaotic and stressful times, community is more important than ever. It isn’t just good for our hearts and minds, it’s good for democracy.