Texas State Board of Education wants to streamline book approvals for districts

Texas’ top education board is asking the Legislature to give the board authority to help school districts vet library books in compliance with state law.

GOP members, who control 10 of the 15 seats on the Texas State Board of Education (TSBE), are hoping the new proposal will better support districts while still giving schools some discretion over library material.

“They could have their own communities involved in what they want in their libraries, but the standard [under the law] has been set to alleviate confusion,” Republican Board Member Evelyn Brooks said, according to local ABC News 13. “There is a lot of confusion at the board meetings, even though the law is very straightforward. It’s just been a very muddy area.”

The law in question, Texas House Bill 900, which took effect last year, prohibits school libraries from acquiring “books rated [for] sexually explicit material… [and] permits the exclusion from a school library of materials that are pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable.” 

In a 10-2 vote on Thursday, the TSBE recommended that the state Legislature pass a bill to allow the board to vet books before they get to school libraries, said CBS News Austin.  

Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Democrat from San Marcos, said the task of rating all the books would be “Herculean”.  

“That seems just insane to me, even if we were paid – and we’re not,” Bell-Metereau told local Democrats about the GOP proposal. 

The Republicans dismissed the concerns as silly. 

The new process would work similarly to how the board already vets textbooks, using experts who do the work, said one TSBE member. 

“This board knows how to vet material,” said Tom Maynard, according to the CBS Austin affiliate. “We can create a transparent process to do that, to do that work”  

Maynard said that local school libraries will still have plenty of control locally, “but it does take something off the plate of local school boards and they would be delighted for us to take that off their plate.” 

Rep. Jared Patterson, a Republican from Frisco, went part of the way to accommodating the TSBE’s 10-2 vote by introducing Texas House Bill 183, which outlines how the board must deal with parental requested reviews of school library books, which are now handled locally.  

But a plain reading of the bill shows that it would have to be expanded to allow the board to review all books first before the books get to local libraries, as requested by the board’s new recommendation. 

Republicans are pressing their policy prerogatives after successfully defending the GOP supermajority on the TSBE. 

This week, the board narrowly approved a proposal that would include reading textbooks that have Christian materials included, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the parable of the Prodigal Son, reported the Dallas News. 

Those books also compare Christian teachings with similar teachings from other religions that are thought to be socially beneficial. 

“Besides the two versions in the Bible, there are also versions of the Golden Rule in the ancient books from other religions, including Hinduism and Islam. The Golden Rule suggests that every small act of kindness matters,” the materials read, reported the Dallas News. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has expressed support for the lessons, noting that they are not required. 

“These educational materials are voluntary and free for schools to use. We’ll ensure young Texans have access to high-quality curricula,” Abbott said in a statement on X.