More Money for School Texts

Even the best teacher carries a huge ball and chain into the classroom if the textbooks are bad--or nonexistent. Yet about half of California’s public school students use outdated books, some of them older than the pupils. Other students have no personal copies at all of their texts. Because of this crisis, half of the teachers in the state cannot assign useful homework.

So it comes as no surprise that more than 70% of Californians believe current-edition textbooks are a major educational priority, according to a poll conducted by the American Publishers Assn. on behalf of the state PTA. These results, though they clearly serve the purposes of the publishers, should encourage Sacramento, awash in revenues, to spend more on texts.

Three bills pending before the California Legislature would address the shortage of up-to-date texts.

SB 1412, sponsored by state Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), would double the current per-pupil funding allocated by the state, which is $29.05 for students in kindergarten through eighth grade and $19.01 for students in ninth through 12th grade. It would gradually increase to $60 per pupil in all grades in public schools. At that point, the state would spend $192 million a year.

The measure, a revision of the State Instructional Materials Fund, also would require each school board to review annually “the availability and adequacy of instructional materials.” Without this audit, some districts would have no idea how many books they have on hand or how many they need. The findings would be made public, a service to parents.

Another measure, AB 2041, sponsored by e Assemblyman Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno), would immediately increase funding for textbooks to $65 per pupil, and also require school boards to hold public hearings and correct the lack of textbooks and classroom materials. The Bustamante bill would penalize school boards that do not come up with a corrective plan within two months by fining them 10% of their administrative funding, a big enough chunk to capture school administrators’ attention.

Charles S. Poochigian (R-Fresno) and Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), would streamline the State Board of Education’s approval of new books for use in classrooms. It doesn’t raise funding, but a more efficient process would help districts buy the latest books.

Sacramento can’t fix every problem in the classroom, but having three textbook bills on the table indicates the seriousness of this issue. The measure that emerges ought to include the best features of each--more state money, more local accountability, less bureaucracy.