Booksology Now, a newly discovered state consulting contract is raising further red flags that some in the state may deny authors and students access to comprehensive concepts.
Texas has 20 Educational Service Centers (ESCs) serving school districts in various regions of the state. ESC is not a regulatory agency of the Texas Education Association, and schools can choose where and how they participate in the services they provide. According to the Texas Legislature, the ESC has three main roles. We help school districts improve student outcomes, help school districts operate more effectively and economically, and implement initiatives of Congress or the Texas State Board of Education. ESC frequently provides programming and professional development opportunities for schools and educators. This is especially valuable in some areas of the state where it takes several hours, if not a full day, to drive to such an occasion. Despite having several large cities, Texas is largely rural.
In July 2025, ESC 1 updated the language of its Consulting Services Agreement. This is the format ESC uses to invite guest speakers, authors, and others who provide programming and professional development. ESC 1 covers the Lower Rio Grande Valley along the Mexican border and serves seven counties. This represents 37 school districts and nearly 404,000 students.
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The letter that precedes the updated agreement states the following:
Legal advice to ESC 1 resulted in updates to contract language regarding DEI, and these contract changes amount to wholesale censorship. This is despite the fact that the letter itself includes a footer that reads, “Region One Educational Service Center does not discriminate in its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or any other basis prohibited by law.” Texas’ ESC already requires politically driven agreements in consultant contracts, including that consultants have not “boycotted Israel,” have not entered into contracts that “boycotted specific energy companies,” or contracted with companies that “discriminate against the firearms and ammunition industry.”
New conditions that consultants, including authors, must agree to fly in the face of that anti-discrimination statement. The full text of the agreement can be read here, but the most concerning part is that, even amidst continued censorship of so-called “DEI” topics, this is something not found in other agreements by authors across the country so far.
“Equal treatment of all” requires consultants to discuss race in a “neutral” manner. One race cannot be “highly valued” over another, and any discussion of “diversity, equity and inclusion, critical race theory, affirmative action, or other similar divisive topics” is prohibited. Even though ESC 1’s own letterhead states that it does not discriminate against any federally protected class of people.this agreement requires that consultants not participate in such non-discrimination. Letter d states that people working for the contractor were selected “solely on the basis of merit and ability to perform.”
This contract deprives authors and other consultants of the right to be themselves and say what their expertise is, unless it is based on white supremacy. What concepts might be divisive is open to interpretation, especially given the call for neutrality and opposition to valuing one race over another. Can slavery be discussed as a historical reality, or must commercial corporations like PragerU present it in a way that describes it as a “good thing” for black people? Can authors of books about Asian American heroes talk about their books, or must they only discuss them in the context of other similar books featuring white American heroes?
Clause 2, “Ban on biological sex and preferred pronouns,” blatantly dehumanizes people and summarily dismisses potential contractors who do not identify within a rigid biological binary. But taking this a step further, the contract makes it appear as though anyone who even includes a pronoun in their signature is in violation of the contract, regardless of whether that pronoun is “different” from the gender they were assigned at birth. This clause is brutally discriminatory, completely disregards the science of fact, and requires potential contractors to comply with written requirements for the life of the contract.
However, this provision does not only apply to consultants. That applies to the entire team. This is a gross overreach and an impossible and incredibly authoritarian act of one institution exercising power over a large number of people.
Of course, no one is required to sign such a contract, and many writers will probably refuse. But that’s the point. It aims to further marginalize already marginalized people and denies opportunities for young people, educators and other professionals to discover and learn from a wide range of people. America, and indeed Texas itself, especially the Rio Grande Valley, is incredibly diverse. Contracts like this silence these voices and perspectives and support fanciful ideas of who the “ideal” American is.
It is bold for ESC to declare that it does not discriminate and then subsequently impose discriminatory contract terms that people who do not work for ESC 1 must abide by.
At the time of writing, ESC 1 appears to be the only service center requiring this new contract. Member schools are not required to use such agreements, and to date, there are no reports of such contractual obligations in Texas or elsewhere. But these languages are here, and this is not the end point. As more states succumb to far-right extremism, more institutions will directly harm the vast majority of consultants. This minority itself is America’s majority.
Book bans are already hurting authors, and even in the early stages of the rise of censorship in the 2020s, authors warned of the loss of significant income from exploiting school visits. Queer and BIPOC writers are already the most targeted, and those same necessary voices are now subject to these dehumanizing contracts.
And as always, it is tens of thousands of children who will lose an experience that will last a lifetime. These are tens of thousands of children whose lives and experiences will be shaped by their interactions with special guests during their school years.
But the only way this regime can continue is by denying education to young people. In Texas, the situation is made even clearer through the state’s history of gerrymandering and voter disenfranchisement, where minority political groups continue to hold unwarranted and unrepresentative power over a diverse collection of residents.
