It seemed inevitable: Texas has overtaken Florida as the nation's leader in school book bans, with more than 8,100 instances recorded during the 2025-26 school year, according to a new report PEN America released this week.

The staggering figure covers the academic year that ended this past spring and marks the first year PEN says the full effects of Texas' 2025 Senate Bill 13 are visible in its data.

Texas accounted for roughly two-thirds of the 11,982 book-ban instances PEN recorded nationwide during the school year, surpassing Florida, which had more than 3,200.