Racine School District clears library shelves of Bible, Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain and other classics.Em

Who the hell is on the Racine Unified School District, and why are they taking away our books?

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In what is a early look at a bizarre story out of Racine, the district is purging a massive quantity of books from school library's. Breathtaking and shocking in scope, let's hope there's a detail here that makes what is happening in Racine schools less surreal than the story below describes:

Racine County Eye-DENISE LOCKWOOD: Members of the Racine Education Association are calling on the Racine Unified School District to stop “weeding” school library books out of school libraries by the “tens of thousands,” Among the books being pulled are ones written by local authors David Kherdian and Kevin Henkes; books on the Holocaust, Hiroshima, the Bible, the Koran, and Beowulf.

Shel Silverstien poetry and many Dr. Seuss books are expected to be removed from some elementary schools.

At Case High School, 2,505 books were removed, including: Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Holy Bible, Pable Picasso: A Modern Master, and The Iliad & The Odyssey of Homer. “

Aaron Eick, vice president of the REA and teacher at Horlick High School, said the librarians are at a loss on how the books will be replaced. “There is not nearly enough money to buy enough books to replace what has been lost,” Eick said. The Racine Unified School District is purging “tens of thousands of books” copyrighted prior to the year 2000, according to a statement by the REA. 

From the Racine Journal Times: 

One of the hardest-hit schools was Mitchell Middle School, according to Gabrielle Sharrock, who has worked as a library media specialist in the district for five years and will start as the school’s librarian next academic year.

She said she was not consulted about books being removed and she visited the library two days after the school was “weeded” and found dozens of boxes full of books slated to be destroyed (see pic above), numerous shelves bare and most of the non-fiction section nearly cleared out.

“It was just devastating to see that,” she said. “If I had to replace all of those books with my budget it would take 16 years, and by then they would be outdated.”

Right Wing Texas Text Books not even supported by state anymore.

This doesn't answer the question; have Texas text books found their way into other states? But it's good news for Texans. Even they found a way out of using their own conservative spin in school books.

Edweek: Texas Board Sees Its Textbook Influence Wane: The State Board of Education is again sparking fierce debate as it begins a public hearing Tuesday on how the next round of science textbooks will address issues such as intelligent design versus evolution and climate change. But this time a law is in place that gives school districts the freedom to choose their own instructional materials including software, electronic readers or textbooks with or without board approval.

Already, though, some volunteer citizen committees that reviewed proposed textbooks … have raised ideological objections and urged publishers to make appropriate edits. Some have asked for edits that stress evolution is only a theory and that some scientists remain skeptical about climate change … one committee member even suggested that "creation science" be covered in all biology textbooks.Previously, the board not only set the state curriculum but also approved textbooks that could be used to teach the lessons over the next 10 years.

When it tackled overhauling the science curriculum in 2009, meanwhile, the board sparked outcry when it decided that students be required to examine "all sides of scientific evidence" for matters such as evolution. The following year, the board tweaked social studies curriculums statewide so that young Texans are taught that America's founding fathers were guided by Christian principles.