Textbook upgrades unlikely in Calif. schools

History textbooks in many California classrooms won't mention the election of President Obama or the subprime mortgage meltdown until at least 2016. Stem-cell research and climate change could be absent from science texts even longer. And students will be using aging books for years longer than planned because of California's education budget cuts.

The state budget that closed a $24 billion gap last month dramatically reduced state spending for textbooks. The state Board of Education won't approve new books for kindergarten through eighth grade until January 2016 at the earliest, and districts have postponed approvals of new high-school books as well. A state requirement that districts purchase books within two years of adoption has been waived until 2013.

Additionally, state funding previously earmarked for textbooks — nearly $334 million this year — can be spent by school districts for other needs over the next four years, providing flexibility that educators say is essential at a time of severe budget reductions.

But the state's top educator fears these moves put students at a competitive disadvantage.

"We need modern, state-of-the-art textbooks, not outdated, antiquated textbooks," said state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell. "It could be close to a generation before we see new textbooks."

Teachers can still supplement aging books with other materials — a routine practice — so students will learn about Obama's election and the worst recession in decades. But the policy changes will dramatically affect districts' book purchases for the foreseeable future.

California school districts spent at least $633 million on new books in 2007, according to the Association of American Publishers. "We're all seeing a precipitous drop," said John Sipe Jr., vice president of K-12 sales in California for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Fewer than 200 California districts have bought reading/literature texts this year, compared with publishers' typical expectation of 600 to 700, he said.

"This is a staggering difference for our industry," Sipe said.

Los Angeles Unified, the largest district in the state, is saving $60 million by postponing purchases. Districts' officials say the postponements will have a minimal effect in the classroom.

Nader Twal, who taught high-school English for a decade and now oversees Long Beach's small learning communities, said research consistently showed that the most important element to students' success is the quality of the classroom teacher.

Many textbook updates seem to him to be less necessity than testimony to publishers' clout in Sacramento, the state capital.

"The majority of what changes is the look of the textbook, the colors used, the visuals, and perhaps some activities they recommend," he said. "Personally, I'm fine not adopting textbooks every year, every five years unless there is some huge uprising."