Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: California is
facing a $24billion budget
deficit
Posted on 06/09/2009 10:15:41 AM PDT by yankeedame
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: California is
facing a $24billion budget
deficit
...Arnold Schwarzenegger has a plan to save his state's failing economy - by terminating text books.
The governor is telling children to give up the schoolbooks and turn to digital lessons to help the state avoid bankruptcy...
... he said: 'Textbooks are outdated, in my opinion.' He continued: 'For so many years, we've been trying to teach the kids exactly the same way.
'Our kids get their information from the internet, downloaded onto their iPods, and in Twitter feeds to their cell phones ...
'So why are California's school students still forced to lug around antiquated...expensive textbooks?'...
...the average price of a textbook is $75 to $100, whereas digital media can be distributed cheaply...
[snip]
Mr Schwarzenegger has ruled out tax increases to make up the shortfall.
Announcing measures across the board to stop excess spending...Spending department have been ordered to submit plans to the Department of Finance to reduce their expenditure by 15per cent or more...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
You said — It would actually make sense to issue students an e-book reader, such as the Kindle, and save them from lugging around heavy text books.
—
Yeah, it’s not a bad idea, although it does take some getting used to — in handling text in a different format like that (i.e., not a book). It’s a different methodology and some will be “thrown for a loop” in adjusting to it...
- no longer be limited to a physical distribution chain
- couldn’t be lost, damaged, or destroyed in a material way
- could be kept forever as a reference text
- could be easily updated with new lessons and data
- easier on the budget
- sell those book depositories! Convert them to offices of warehouses for private business.
- make texts available to home-schools (not all texts are bad)
It’s not a terrible idea.
My friends in the textbook making side are in the picture editing side, so they work a lot on history texts. The vast majority of what they see change from one edition to another in history texts is deleting cigarettes from pictures and the occasional person from history. Not a lot changes about history, WWII is WWII is WWII and the chapter on that doesn’t need to change much from edition to edition and doesn’t change much. The only dynamicness in history texts is the most recent completed decade, but even that would only be about every other new edition.
It is a business. And I have no problem with them making a profit. But they have been treating the customer (schools and students) like prisoners for a long time, eventually that ride has to end.
You said — People will obviously make fun of this, but it does have merit.
—
Yes it does have merit. I was wondering how long it would take for people to “get on board” with that kind of “reading” (i.e., PDF files...).
“Well, if it has to happen to the old Dinosaur Media (the MSM), then I don’t see why it doesn’t have to happen to the textbook industry...”
But any loss of jobs trickles down. It’s not good.
Well, that’s just a “fact of life” with the progression towards “digital”... I mean if the MSM knows it, then all the other industries are going to know it too.
Otherwise, you’re “protecting” industries from these kinds of advancements...
They are slow, stall, and a lousy format for anything.
The problem is that they buy textbooks every year. And they are almost contiuously “updated”. The truth is, many textbooks could and should be used for a decade. Math? Literature? English?? History?? Basic Science?? Geography??
A decent supply, of decent books, should not be an annual or nearly annual purchase.
You said — California’s socialist experiment is the future of America.
—
There’s no “experiment” in this. We know it will be cheaper per book. We’ve got PDF files right now and book readers. I read PDF books. Heck, I even have a subscription to probably a $100,000 library (probably a lot more money than that) of current electronic and computer books that I can access online right now. It’s great, because I would spend a whole lot more on the books themselves, than I am on the subscription to access the entire book contents right now.
This has nothing to do with a socialist experiment, but rather adjusting people to the *future* of digital, which many should have already have done by now...
Not really on the kindle. Digital reading is not the same as the printed page. People develop a completely different “scan”, such as when reading a web page.
Computer screens are a very poor substitute for books.
You said — It’s a business, after all.
—
And now it’s a business that better learn to reduce its costs...
Copyright issues.
You are right. I know people in the industry. Prices at the local colleges are >$150 and a student cannot buy a used one because of yearly revisions.
I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the industry uses some form of kickback scheme.
Text books should be published on DVD/CDs.
You’re right. WWII won’t change much - except that there could be an entirely new set of standards created by any given state. For example, if California wants more text about the contributions of Native Americans during WWII, then that represents a significant change. And anything new needs to be added. Now that we know who “Deep Throat” was, for example, that would be important to insert into the history text. It’s more than just inserting pages, it’s designing the layout and ensuring the pagination is correct, and updating all the terminology, bringing the ancillaries up to date,and, like you said, taking out the offensive elements like cigarettes.
I have to say it was a lot more competitive when there were many textbook publishers. Now there are really only three. Not enought competition there.
Can you imagine the logistics involved in keeping all the batteries charged in all the ereaders that all the schools in California would need?
What about simply the cost of replacement batteries and parts for all of them after the kids get a hold of them?
Something tells me that the overall cost of going to digital ereaders - including labor and maintinance personnel and techs to help get the files onto all those readers and keep them udated and free of viruses - will bankrupt more districts than books will.
hmmm... text books now cost $75-100 ea. let’s do the math. let’s say kids get, on average, 5 books per year. that would be 5 * 75 for 12 years or about $4,500
if you push a digital pad that can display the same items, but cost < $300, that would be a big savings.
give me an ipod touch like device that is 9”x5” or bigger, and that’d be cool. it could be used for all books, paper, email, distribution, etc
of course, they would have to have one per student. this could cost about $300 per student, but the student wouldn’t need more then 2 or 3 during the 12 years of school.
personally, i’d love one for myself. the function of the ipod touch is right on, but the size is wrong. they need to be bigger and allow for simplistic interface with a stylus of some kind so people can write/draw normally
“And now it’s a business that better learn to reduce its costs...”
No argument there.
Like how easy digital is when studying to find words or phrases and see references... /s
Apple is reported to be finalizing a new product, something along the lines of a tablet with a 10” screen. It’s quite interesting to me, the timing of this Schwarzenegger announcement.
Talk about a windfall...
In walks Apple with a color device that can handle the textbook needs of California’s kids, right on que.
If you think about it, the eTextbooks could actually be updated constantly rather than wait for the new printing, then purchase a new book.
PDF and the eBook Reader both allow notes to be inserted in documents, underlining and bookmarking to boot at least in the eBook Reader.
Apple may be onto it’s next amazing money maker.
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