read_shapefile doesn't pick up crs (also, not sure how to get crs without pyarrow)

[deanm0000]

I tried with this file https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2018/shp/cb_2018_us_state_500k.zip

grctab = read_shapefile(shpfile, dbffile)
patab = pa.table(grctab)
pa.table(gg)['geometry'].type.crs
## returns
''

gpdtab = gpd.read_file(shp_file_dir)
gpdtab.crs
## returns
<Geographic 2D CRS: EPSG:4269>
Name: NAD83
Axis Info [ellipsoidal]:
- Lat[north]: Geodetic latitude (degree)
- Lon[east]: Geodetic longitude (degree)
Area of Use:
- name: North America - onshore and offshore: Canada - Alberta; British Columbia; Manitoba; New Brunswick; Newfoundland and Labrador; Northwest Territories; Nova Scotia; Nunavut; Ontario; Prince Edward Island; Quebec; Saskatchewan; Yukon. Puerto Rico. United States (USA) - Alabama; Alaska; Arizona; Arkansas; California; Colorado; Connecticut; Delaware; Florida; Georgia; Hawaii; Idaho; Illinois; Indiana; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Maine; Maryland; Massachusetts; Michigan; Minnesota; Mississippi; Missouri; Montana; Nebraska; Nevada; New Hampshire; New Jersey; New Mexico; New York; North Carolina; North Dakota; Ohio; Oklahoma; Oregon; Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; South Carolina; South Dakota; Tennessee; Texas; Utah; Vermont; Virginia; Washington; West Virginia; Wisconsin; Wyoming. US Virgin Islands. British Virgin Islands.
- bounds: (167.65, 14.92, -40.73, 86.45)
Datum: North American Datum 1983
- Ellipsoid: GRS 1980
- Prime Meridian: Greenwich

As an aside, I would just make a request that instead of taking the two files as input it would just take the directory or, for bonus points, a zip file containing a shapefile directory.