Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick demanded 2,193 library books' removal, threatened school ratings penalty

On August 19, 2026, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick held a news conference at the Texas Capitol demanding that public school districts remove 2,193 books that a conservative activist group, Recover America, had compiled and flagged as objectionable. Flanked by easels displaying printed book covers, Patrick said school boards and administrators had failed to act on a 2025 law intended to remove lewd content from libraries across the state's more than 9,000 campuses. "It's the law and we expect you to follow the law. So we're coming for the books," Patrick said. "We ask that you do it on your own and remove these books." He described some of the books on display as "so filthy, so dirty, so vulgar, so pornographic" that he would not open them in the room. The list includes acclaimed and widely taught titles such as Elie Wiesel's "Night," Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray," Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five," Anthony Doerr's "All the Light We Cannot See," and works by John Green, Maya Angelou, and Toni Morrison.

The push builds on Texas Senate Bill 13, a 2025 law that shifted authority to approve and remove school library books from librarians to school boards, based on complaints from parents and activist groups. Patrick said an "overwhelming majority" of school boards had taken no action as the law approached its one-year anniversary. He confirmed that under his proposed legislation, a district found to have even a single prohibited book on its shelves could be docked a full letter grade in the state's annual performance ratings — from an "A" to a "B," for example — a rating used by the state to justify takeovers of underperforming districts. Patrick insisted the effort was not a ban: "There are no books banned in America. You can buy any book you want to buy," he said, adding that the state simply would not use taxpayer money to buy the books for schools.

PEN America's Freedom to Read program said Patrick's threat amounts to "forcing schools into overcompliance" and warned that "this call from Lt. Gov. Patrick only ratchets up intimidation and fear across Texas public schools." The organization noted that SB 13 had already prompted one district to close its secondary-school libraries entirely (later reversed after public backlash) and another to remove roughly 1,500 books, including memoirs by former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush. Librarians and literacy advocates have argued throughout the fight that many of the targeted books, which frequently address the Holocaust, race, and LGBTQ+ identity, matter precisely because they reflect experiences some students cannot find elsewhere.