TEXAS — Texas Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, wants to know what books are in the state’s school libraries and classrooms, and he’s identified 850 of them he said could “make students feel discomfort.”

Krause, who chairs the House Committee on General Investigating and is a candidate for attorney general, on Monday sent a letter to Texas Education Agency Deputy Commissioner of School Programs Lily Laux and numerous school district superintendents that identifies books concerning racism and sexuality, among other topics.

The letter, first obtained by the Texas Tribune, includes books that don’t appear to fall into those categories, however. In the letter, Krause said he wishes to know how many copies of the books schools have and how much was spent on them.

Among the numerous titles are “Everything You Need to Know About Going to the Gynecologist” by Shifra Diamond, “Teen Suicide” by Roleff L. Tamara, “The Black Power Movement and Civil Unrest” by Kerry Hinton and “Harvey Milk: The First Openly Gay Elected Official in the United States” by Barbara Gottfried Hollander.

READ: The 850 books included in Rep. Krause's letter

Krause's letter doesn’t explain how the books were chosen.

The letter comes on the heels of the passage of House Bill 3979, better known as the critical race theory bill, in May. The law principally affects social studies and history teachers and mandates that lessons involving controversial or hotly debated topics must be discussed in a manner that examines different perspectives and doesn’t favor any one race or gender.

Some teachers Spectrum News 1 has spoken with say the law is already creating confusion about what topics are permissible in classrooms.

“Legislators passed a version of critical race theory reform to ensure that our students would not be taught critical race theory in things like government classes and social study classes,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said, speaking to Houston business leaders on Wednesday. 

But teachers say critical race theory, or CRT, is a collegiate level concept not taught in K-12 in Texas. 

“Classrooms in Texas do not teach CRT,” said Zeph Capo, president of the Texas AFT. “We do teach diverse and inclusive education so that all of the students in our classrooms feel welcomed and supported. There's nothing wrong with that. As a matter of fact, that's something to be proud of. But that's not CRT.”

In the letter, Krause notes that in school districts including Leander ISD, Katy ISD and Lake Travis ISD objections from “students, parents, and taxpayers” have led to the removal of books from school libraries and classrooms.

READ: Statement from Texas legislators on investigation

Meanwhile, the presidents of the Texas American Federation of Teachers and the Texas State Teachers Association issued strong condemnations of the move, saying it is massive political overreach and tantamount to censorship.  

“What does he need this list for, is it to burn the books later? Is it to block the books? It’s just one step into censorship,” said Ovidia Molina, president of the Texas State Teachers Association. 

Molina pointed toward Krause’s campaign for attorney general as the motivation behind the investigation. 

“It is just something that a representative is using for political gain. They're not thinking about what our students need, they're not thinking about the professionalism of our educators, they're not supporting our public schools. They're just using this to make a name for themselves,” she said.  

Molina expressed concern that if the investigation leads to action like potentially banning the books on the list, it could significantly reduce the diversity of literature students are exposed to. 

“The majority of the authors in this list are authors of color, topics about race, topics about things that our students are going through. And so it's something that is not just an attack on our teachers and their professionalism - you know, they go to school and they have curriculum that is grade appropriate, and we go through this process of planning and prepping - but it's also an attack on our students who will not be able to see themselves in the stories that they read,” Molina said. 

As both a teacher and a parent, Cuitlahuac Guerra-Mojarro says he’s tired of politics infiltrating the classroom. 

“This kind of censorship, it does damage to our children's education,” said Guerra-Mojarro. “School districts are supposed to be focused on educating children, not on placating politicians who are trying to appeal to the extremist parts of their base.”

If the books on the list are banned, he says, “That worries me because then we're gonna do a poor job of educating our children and exposing children to a rich variety of literature from across different spectrums and perspectives. And that's kind of the point of school.”

But he’s even more concerned about the potential chilling effect in the classroom. 

“I’m worried about teachers at my kids school and every school feeling confident and comfortable with the curriculum and instruction decisions they're making,” said Guerro-Mojarro. 

Krause did not respond to Capital Tonight's request for comment on this story. 

In response to inquiries from Capital Tonight, representatives of Round Rock ISD and Lake Travis ISD confirmed that they had received the letter of investigation and are currently consulting with their legal teams to determine how to respond.