AUSTIN (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has joined a conservative Republican lawmaker’s campaign to investigate books that cover race, gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools.
State Rep. Matt Krause, who chairs the House General Investigating Committee, has sent state and local school officials a list of more than 800 books dealing with those subjects and related issues, asking them to search for the books on their campuses. Krause wants the schools to advise which of the books and how many they possess, where they are kept and how they were paid for.
Many of the books on the list were written by women, people of color and LGBTQ writers and cover topics including teen pregnancy and abortion. Krause's inquiry comes after Abbott signed a law similar to those approved by legislatures in other GOP-controlled states limiting how race and racism can be taught in schools. In Texas, that includes the idea that the advent of slavery in what is now the United States marks the true founding of the nation.
