Texas K-12 public schools typically come out fair to middling in state-by-state rankings of student performance, so it’s an occasion worth noting any time we come first in something. This year, we led the nation in book bans, and the contest wasn’t even close. Our school libraries were, in sportscasters’ terms, absolutely on fire. Between July 2021 and June 2022, according to PEN America, Texas school districts banned 801 books in 22 school districts, often focusing on titles that deal with racial history and sexual identity.Our achievement may yet turn out to be ephemeral. Hard-line book-banning candidates lost seats in some school board elections this month, including in Round Rock, while winning in other locations, such as Granbury. We’ll learn soon enough whether such mixed…The post The Year We Banned Books appeared first on Texas Monthly.