Texas schools now refusing dictionary donations thanks to GOP-backed book restrictions: report

On Tuesday, Axios reported that Republican-backed anti-"wokeness" restrictions on what books can be used in schools have become so extreme that some schools in North Texas can temporarily no longer accept donations of dictionaries.

"Southlake's Rotary Club has given out stacks of dictionaries to third graders in the city's public schools for years, but now the district's new book policies have made those donations more difficult," reported Michael Mooney. "Texas schools ban more books than any other state, and battles over book-approval guidelines have dominated school board discussions for more than a year. The fact that the conversation has turned to dictionaries shows how strict these policies have become."

"The Rotary Club has held off purchasing its usual lot of student dictionaries until the district assures the group that its members will be able to deliver the books to students in person, per NBC5," said the report.

At the same time, "Parents in nearby Grapevine-Colleyville ISD say they're having trouble donating books because of that district's new 20-page book-donation protocol."

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All of this comes after Keller Independent School District, near Fort Worth, was forced to remove 41 "challenged" books, including the Bible and an adaptation of the Diary of Anne Frank.

"Rotary Club members say the annual donation of dictionaries is about more than the physical books — it's a chance for members of the community to tell students about the virtue of service-above-self," noted the report. "'[We] talk to third graders about the value of learning, and learning not just from their phone,' a Rotary Club member told Southlake's school board last month."

Many of these new policies around the country were adopted as part of a Republican moral panic about what teachers were telling children about topics like racial justice and gay rights. Some Republicans aren't even stopping at schools, with one GOP-backed lawsuit in Virginia seeking to prohibit Barnes & Noble bookstores from selling certain books to children without "parental consent".