Fort Worth lawmaker on book probe: ‘We’re ‘just gathering information’
Fort Worth lawmaker Matt Krause said his investigation into 849 books in school libraries and classrooms is for fact gathering, pushing back against the notion it is related to censorship.
Krause, a Republican whose district includes parts of Fort Worth and Arlington, told the Star-Telegram Friday that a book being on the list doesn’t mean it is problematic.
“All it means is that it has some content in it that corresponds with some of the new policies that Texas put in place, whether it’s on sexuality, whether it’s on race,” Krause said. “That doesn’t mean it’s disqualifying. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have it on your bookshelves. It doesn’t mean if you have it there you have to get rid of it. It just means that there is some content in there that probably aligns with the new standards that were promulgated during session.”
The books on the list cover topics like race and racism, sex and sexuality, abortion and LGBTQ rights. Krause, as chairman of the House General Investigating Committee, is seeking information on the number of listed books at schools, their cost and information on other books related to subjects like sexually transmitted diseases and “material that might make students feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress because of their race or sex.”
“I know people go to banning book, burning books,” Krause said. “There’s nothing in the letter about any of that.”
The Oct. 25 letter, sent to a Texas Education Agency official and an unspecified number of superintendents, does not explain the intent of the investigation. Krause declined to name the school districts, citing a pending or potential investigation. More than a dozen told the the Star-Telegram they received the letter, including the Fort Worth school district. Krause also declined to say how the books were selected and declined to elaborate on next steps.
“What we’re doing right now is just gathering information,” he said. “Who knows what that information is going to say? Who knows what the response is going to be to that information? So until you know all of that, you can’t really say with any degree of certainty what’s going to come next.”
The letter notes examples of school districts removing books from shelves after concerns were raised by parents, including in Southlake Carroll, where a teacher was reprimanded after a student took home a book titled “This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on how to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do the Work.”
“It’s not our place to say, for me or even the committee to say, what’s appropriate, what’s not,” Krause said. “I think that’s for the localities to decide. I think that’s for the parents to decide and to make their case to your local ISD. There are some incredibly egregious and extreme examples, again pornography and pedophilia, that we can all agree on shouldn’t be there, but we’re not trying to set ourselves up as arbiters of every little thing that may be appropriate or not appropriate. Because that’s objective to a lot of folks.”
The “Critical Race Theory” bill that passed in September requires teachers discussing an issue of public policy or social affairs to “explore that topic objectively and in a manner free from political bias.” The legislation limits how race will be taught in schools and lays out concepts that can’t be taught.
Book in Keller school district raises concerns
In the Keller school district, “Gender Queer: a Memoir” by Maia Kobabe caught the attention of trustee Charles Randklev. The district removed the book from a library after a parent wrote about it on Twitter.
The book, which is among those included in Krause’s list, is a “useful and touching guide on gender identity — what it means and how to think about it — for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere,” according to Goodreads.
“Thank you to the parents who have reached out about inappropriate books in our libraries,” Randklev said in a Facebook post. “As a parent and board member, the material in these books is obscene and appalling. Sexually explicit content has no place in our schools. It is my understanding these books have or will be removed.”
Jeff Cason, a Bedford Republican, cited the book Friday in asking Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to “investigate sexually explicit material in public schools.”
Responses to the inquiry
Jelani Memory’s “A Kids Book About Racism” is also listed. The book meant for kids 6 and older offers a “clear description of racism, how it makes people feel when they experience it, and how to spot it when it happens,” according to a book summary.
The Portland-based father of six who is Black wrote the book for his family to ensure they’re comfortable talking about race and racism, he said. His intent was to open the conversation about racism and find “a clever way to start it with them.”
“My first reaction was almost amusement,” he said. “This sort of level of absurdity, not just of the list but of my book making it onto the list, and my second thought was, have they read my book? The third was dismay. How unfortunate, I think. The rhetoric. The polarization. The, I don’t know, scapegoating around racism, talking about racism, introducing facts to children in schools — how truly absurd the conversation has got.”
Heather Lowe, a mother of two who has children in the Arlington school district, said she was shocked to read about Krause’s inquiry.
“It’s something that you think about as a horrible story from way, way in the past, but to think that it’s happening in 2021 is just really upsetting, and I think it’s rooted in performative politics,” she said.
Krause disputed claims his inquiry is politically motivated, saying the review was meant to be private and he’s limited on what he can say about it. He is a candidate for Texas attorney general.
Arlington trustee Justin Chapa, speaking for himself and not the board, confirmed that the district is among those that received Krause’s letter. He raised concerns about the timing of the inquiry as schools face challenges related to COVID-19. The portion of the request dealing with books outside of those listed would be especially time consuming, he said.
“It just seemed like an unhelpful thing to do in the middle of us trying to recover from COVID and fill all of the learning gaps that we know exist,” he said.
