AUSTIN, Texas (CN) — Texas public schools are under the microscope of GOP lawmakers.
On the heels of the Legislature restricting how current events and controversial topics are discussed in the classroom, the focus has shifted from teachers to books. After parents raised concerns about the content available to students in school libraries, powerful voices are calling on education officials to remove controversial books.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott and state lawmakers in his party have been successful in adding restrictions to how current events and history are taught.
This year alone, lawmakers have passed two bills aimed at reshaping classroom discussion. The goal of House Bill 3979 and Senate Bill 3 is to ban what politicians have labeled critical race theory. Under these pieces of legislation, teachers who discuss current events in the classroom are required to “explore the topic from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective." HB 3979 went into effect on Sept. 1, and SB 3 is set to go into effect later this year.
But critical race theory is not taught in Texas public schools, a point many school boards and administrators have made. The theory is a framework or lens often used in graduate-level classrooms to examine how inequalities persist through laws and institutions. Lawmakers and others have claimed without evidence that the framework is being taught in public schools and it is discussed in a way that teaches white children they are oppressors or racist by virtue of the color of their skin.
Implementation of HB 3979 has led educators to contend with what is and is not allowed for them to discuss. Leaked audio, published first by NBC News last month, revealed an administrator with the Caroll Independent School District telling teachers to offer “opposing” perspectives to books on the Holocaust. Gina Peddy, the school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, tasked teachers with remembering "the concepts of [House Bill] 3979” in order to prevent any issues.
Teachers in the audio can be heard expressing frustration over how they might provide a contending perspective to the events of the Holocaust.
As this news for teachers circulated, a new cause for GOP lawmakers and concerned parents arose: library content.
On Nov. 1, Abbott sent a letter to the Texas Association of School Boards, ordering districts to “shield children from pornography and inappropriate content.” According to Abbott spokeswoman Sheridan Nolen, the governor was inspired to act after a parent in Keller, Texas – just north of Fort Worth – took to Twitter to complain about a book that contained “legitimate visual porn.”
The book under criticism is “Gender Queer: a Memoir” by Maia Kobabe, a nonbinary cartoonist. Kobabe’s book explores the coming-of-age experience of discovering one’s gender identity. In an op-ed with The Washington Post, Kobabe said that the book’s target audience is young adults and adults who may have a child in their life questioning their identity.
Due to several panels in the book depicting sexual acts, parents in the Keller school district successfully petitioned to have it removed from libraries.
The Texas Association of School Boards in a statement said that they received the governor's letter and care deeply about the input of parents but were caught off guard as to their involvement in the matter.
“We are confused, though, as to why this letter was sent to the Texas Association of School Boards, which has no regulatory authority over school districts and does not set the standards for instructional materials, including library books,” it said. “In most school districts, the review and selection of individual library materials traditionally have been an administrative responsibility managed by professional district staff.”
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