California was not so far off on its requirements for publishers to cut the size of texts. Reviewers of textbooks know the game publishers play. The result is always in the publishers’ economic favor.
When it comes time to update a text, too little attention is given to the strain on kids’ backs.
Less is given to the strain on schools’ budgets.
Publishers most often ignore the concept of selective abandonment.
It is far easier and more profitable for them to add as much new material as they can without subtracting the old.
Nor do they align the texts to each state’s standards as much as they assert.
Instead, they add as much as will sell the book to the most number of schools in the most states.
There is no way teachers can cover all the material in the current texts.
A great deal goes to waste.
Perhaps the California law will start something beneficial to all, namely forcing textbook publishers to edit out a lot more of the unused information than they do at present.
Certainly the books won’t be as thick nor as profitable for them. What is left over or special to specific states could easily go on the Internet.
Cutting out the excess, outdated and irrelevant information in textbooks will reduce the paper load on students’ backs and the cost to those who carry the financial load.
