California’s commitment to improving education has never been greater. In fact, Gov. Gray Davis has staked his political future on the improvement of public education and has vowed not to seek office next term if there hasn’t been a major overhaul in California’s public K-12 schools.
There are many factors that make up the backbone of education, including well-trained teachers and class-size reduction, just to name a couple. However, smaller classes and excellent teachers will not elevate our schools to a superior standing without the proper resources, specifically textbooks. Old textbooks are commonplace in our schools but significant gains have been made to help eradicate this problem.
In 1998, the Schiff-Bustamante Standards-Based Instructional Materials Program was established. This program appropriates $1 billion from the general fund over four years for the purchase of new textbooks that meet California’s new academic standards. These funds have been readily available to districts throughout California since 1999, yet a substantial portion of these funds haven’t been touched since its inception.
An informal survey conducted by School Services of California found that most of the 15 respondent districts had yet to spend even half of the first-year funding. In fact, only two of the districts spent their entire first-year apportionment.
It is important for districts to take advantage of these funds while they are still available since it is unlikely that this program will be repeated and any funds that are left over will revert back into the general fund. Also of importance is the fact that most mathematics textbooks currently being used in California classrooms do not meet the “back-to-basics” standards recently adopted by the state.
We owe it to our students and our future to have new, quality learning materials readily available for each classroom.
William Sadlier-Dinger
President
Sadlier-Oxford Publishing
New York
