Three bills before the California legislature would reform that state's infamous textbook adoption process. Assembly Bill 2455 aims to curb the ever-escalating cost of textbooks. Unfortunately, rather than allowing the market to determine the price of textbooks by letting schools choose for themselves what is the best value and what texts best meet their needs, this bill would add yet another layer of bureaucracy to the process. It would compel the state board of education to consider what publishers spend to research and develop new texts and to compare California textbook prices with other states to help ensure that the Golden State is getting a fair price. Senate Bill 1380 aims to give schools more flexibility to purchase a greater variety of instructional materials. Specifically, it would allow schools to seek waivers from the state board to buy multimedia tools in lieu of approved texts. Finally, SB 1510 goes a bit further to give schools the flexibility to buy texts when they deem necessary, rather than having to purchase them on a fixed schedule - English this year, math next, etc. These underwhelming changes would not go nearly far enough to reform the appalling process of textbook adoption. (For more on that substantial problem, see Diane Ravitch's A Consumer's Guide to High School History Textbooks, and The Language Police.) Still, better to see some movement on this front than total paralysis. Perhaps these cracks will in time lead to an overdo shattering of the textbook monopoly that California has done so much to create.
"State aims to reduce textbook expenses," by Jessica Portner, Mercury News, May, 23, 2004 (registration required)