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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

The problem is that Texas, as a state, is the second largest consumer of school books in the nation. This gives Texas massive influence on the overall school book market and impacts other states because publishers don’t want to publish multiple versions for multiple states. This may be more a problem for textbooks than for novels, but I imagine it applies to both to some extent.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/19/conservati...

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I understand but this is a single district in Texas, and it's a library book, not a textbook. If the whole state banned the book it would be a bigger deal but I still question how productive getting outraged about it is. If anything, making this a statewide or national issue would probably increase the likelihood of the book getting banned elsewhere, although I reckon it would also be good for sales.

It's multiple districts in Texas, just around the Austin area they are attempting to remove these books from both LISD and RRISD. The Williamson County commissioners recently tried to withhold CARES act funding from both these districts because of these books, however, they had no problem releasing funding for other school districts within the county even though their school libraries have the same books.

This is all political stunts pulled by various right-wing groups. They are specifically targeting LISD and RRISD because these areas have recently trended towards Democrats.

This is but one symptom of a larger curriculum disease being inflicted on schools across the country. "Just" providing a digital alternative to the book doesn't solve the root problem.

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