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Terminator: Salvation in doing away with schoolbooks

California’s Digital Textbook Initiative
June 29, 2009 | By Ron Augustin

Last month, the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, presented the Free Digital Textbook Initiative, a project to provide a list of freely downloadable digital textbooks for public high schools that cover the course content in mathematics and science subject areas. The California Learning Resource Network has been given the responsibility for reviewing materials from publishers to verify that they will be aligned to the California content standards. So far, courses up for proposals are geometry, algebra 2, trigonometry, calculus, physics, chemistry, biology/life sciences, and earth sciences, including the investigation and experimentation strand. Digital textbook content has to “approach or equal a full course of study” and must be downloadable.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California

Textbook giant Pearson has been the first publisher to respond to the initiative, with digital content for four course subjects. Peter Cohen, CEO of Pearson’s US School Curriculum Group, commented: “We believe it is important to take these forward steps toward an online delivery system and we are supporting the Governor’s initiative, recognising there are numerous challenges ahead for the education community to work through,” such as “how we ensure that low income and disadvantaged students receive equal access to technology; how we address the needs of English language learners; and how we protect the intellectual property rights of content and technology creators to support future investment and innovation.”

Governor Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, intends to fhase out printed textbooks altogether, and replace them with online digital e-books. On June 8, he spoke to students about the initiative during a press conference at Sacramento’s Calabasas Highschool, saying “textbooks are outdated, as far as I’m concerned, and there’s no reason why our schools should have our students lug around these antiquated and heavy and expensive textbooks.” He also stated that “the average textbook costs up to US$ 100. So think about it, if each of California’s 2 million high school students use digital math and science books, that would mean that you could save the schools US$ 300 to US$ 400 million”.

The former Hollywood actor’s considerations have to be seen in the context of California’s US$ 42 billion budget gap, which the state is desperately trying to close by rising taxes and clamping down on public spending. Social services, health care and education are the sectors hit hardest by Governor Schwarzenegger’s government measures, so he was quick to assert that “this is not at all a kind of compensating for or overcoming our budget crisis or the money that has been taken from the schools, not by any means. But it does help and this is what we want to do. So this is where the bottom line is, that digital textbooks will help.” California’s Education budget has been slashed by US$ 8.6 billion this year, and additional cuts have already been announced for the next budget round.

Appealing to the students, he added: “Number one, you don’t have to carry around this heavy load in your school bag, which my kids always complain about. You know, these 50 lbs. of school bags that they’re schlepping [i.e., lugging] around. And then, number two, I think it will help because you don’t have to cut down as many trees. Think about that, how much paper is being used in those textbooks. And it makes education and learning much more fun, because it’s interactive and it helps the bottom line in our schools and helps them with their finances.”

As much as printing businesses will suffer in Schwarzenegger’s scenario, there is some logic in his argumentation. After all, he is only expressing an already on-going trend. However, in reality, the move towards digital textbooks does not take into consideration that there are many students out there who cannot afford a laptop or any of the other devices for reading and/or printing the books. While textbooks have been subsidised so far, the digital versions may not be totally free for long. Most likely, costs will be shifted to the end users, and eventually publishers will charge licence fees for downloads, usage, upgrades and printouts, as they will be looking for additional returns connected to the learning materials, such as advertisement, web links and other kinds of fancies which students will be subjected to. And for which they will have to pay from their own pockets. Digital textbooks are not necessarily more “interactive” than their paper counterparts, and it would make more sense to first scrutinise what exactly are the educational benefits of each of the – so far – complementary media.

Schwarzenegger’s initiative may seem logical but is hardly suited to slow down the decline of California’s public education system, a system that, in the US, was once reputed as a national model. In little over three decades, the divide between public and private schools has widened dramatically, driving parents into debt for their children’s private education, and leaving behind those who cannot afford it. It is hard to believe that the Governor’s “free digital textbooks” would be designed to offset this trend. Under his reign, budget cuts have forced school districts to close entire schools, expand class sizes, lay off thousands of teachers, eliminate schoolbus services, cancel summer school programs, and streamline courses. At present, discussions are centering around shortening the academic year from currently ten to less months. After a recent visit to San Francisco, and referring to the school system, federal US Education Secretary Arne Duncan exclaimed, “Honestly, I think California has lost its way, and I think the long-term consequences of that are very troubling.”

Looks like The Terminator wasn’t Arnold Schwarzenegger’s worst act after all.

Ron Augustin, European correspondent of IPP and PSA.