Posted on 09/07/2004 8:20:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
A bill that for the first time would require the state to negotiate for the best price on textbooks -- inspired by a Mercury News investigation -- now sits on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk awaiting his signature or veto.
In an odd alliance, Senate Republicans have joined with state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, a Democrat, to try to derail the measure. They say the bill would require hiring expensive, highly skilled negotiators to haggle prices with publishers.
But educators and taxpayers groups, urging the governor to sign, say the expense would be negligible compared with the potential millions of dollars California school districts could save on the weighty volumes they have no choice but to buy. They also say the measure, which orders the same kind of cost-consciousness used elsewhere in textbook adoption, is overdue.
``It brings into check the cost of textbooks, which has been running amok for years,'' said Brett McFadden, a lobbyist for the Association of California School Administrators, which sponsored the bill. ``The leaders must insist we get the biggest bang for the buck.''
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
The entire school funding debate in America is based on false premises.
Sorry, there just is no substitute for textbooks yet. I'm in my mid 30's working on a technical Ph.D., and even when I can download academic materials I just end up having to print them out. And believe it or not, the cost of printing out a book and having it bound at Kinko's is often more than it would cost to buy it professionally printed and bound from a publisher.
Multimedia has its place, but only as a supplement to text-based instruction.
The readers that I use to teach my child English are California Board of Education approved FROM THE 1890s! In the sixth grade, she was tested and found to be reading at the tenth grade level. The older readers are much better. The State of California should quit spending millions buying "new & improved" textbooks every two years and just reprint the old books from the turn of the century.
For readers, that might be possible. Even for elementary math, it could work. Grammar as well, maybe.
But I wouldn't want my kids being taught science from anything but the latest textbooks. We're falling too far behind the rest of the world in jobs like engineering for that.
Same here. I have to annotate my tech reading. Some of the better instructional CDs have a notes feature that allow comments... I can go with that...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.