Texas Schools, Publishers Adjust to Power Shift
A new state law that decentralizes the selection and purchase of instructional materials for public school students has sparked significant discussion about how it will affect the power of the politically charged State Board of Education to control what’s taught in Texas classrooms.
But its most dramatic impact may be on the state’s relationship to the textbook industry, since companies must now compete for bids from individual districts instead of being able to rely on a single big and largely guaranteed state contract. School districts are also using the same money to support technological hardware like iPads and ...
Comments (6)
Thomas Ratliff
The two biggest positives of this legislation are 1) it moves the decision-making from the 15-member SBOE back to the 7,000+ locally elected school board members who, along with the educators, know what their district needs better than anyone, and 2) as Mr. Reed pointed out, school districts will treat this as "real money" rather than just order books with state money because the new system gives districts ownership of the materials and the money. It's more local accountability and more local control.
sssdddd
This law will free student's minds from the tyranny of state control.
This law should be enshrined by constructing a memorial.
Texascattleco
This could be a good thing in that schools are free to chose the materials/ books that work with their certain population and the decisions empower local districts to have a variety of choices.
Frances Morey
It's about time a development like this came about!
Best,
Frances Morey
gypsy314 ne
I say our children should do away with the text books and go tech with tablets or note books. Save money and the trees. This is the future and to stand by and watch the world go by we are short changing our children and there future. So we all must take the first step and demand the change. We all know it will work. Maybe the teachers are afraid because some of there jobs will no longer be needed. But we will need teachers to update to teach with technology.
Scott Floyd
@Thomas Ratliff - You are dead on accurate. Thanks to your leadership on the SBOE for helping keep some sanity there. It is greatly needed.
@gypsy314ne Teachers are not the problem in the area you mentioned. There will always be teachers needed, so that's not the fear here. The problem is that there is not enough money for schools to provide devices to all students across TX. The schools that either have lots of money or are low performing (thus qualify for grants) are the only ones with those devices. Yet, there are tons of "middle class" schools left out. That is the issue here. There are many teachers who would be forced to change their practices to be current, yes. But they are working with what they have now. Until that part changes, and until the state stops assessing like they do (industrial age, one size fits all), many will still teach like that. Poor kids.
Meanwhile, the politicians still have their meaningless, snapshot percentages from standardized tests to attack schools and educators during election periods. Nice. The IMA is a giant step in the right direction. Electing supportive legislators is the next step.