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Books pricey, old

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Illinois

How long are public school parents gonna take this?

By the time Loryn Kogan got out of the New Trier Township High School Bookstore in August, the bill was nearly $800 for her two sons’ textbooks–materials that are free to students in most states.

What disturbed the North Shore mother the most, however, was that she later found the same books at Amazon.com for nearly $200 less. She quickly bought the books online and returned the others to New Trier.

Kogan didn’t know it, but the district contracts with a private company to run its bookstore and allows the firm to mark up new books by 20 percent over cost.

The contract is unusual because private booksellers usually are found on college campuses. But markups as high as 25 percent are not uncommon in some of Illinois’ largest public school districts, a Tribune investigation has found.

And it gets worse.

Across Illinois, students are resorting to duct tape and rubber bands to hold together decrepit textbooks. Other books are so woefully out-of-date they don’t teach fundamentals such as the fall of Soviet communism, a three-month Tribune investigation has found.

A survey of 50 districts of varying wealth and size shows public schools are failing to provide the most basic tool of learning: a current book in good condition.

Nearly 80 percent of districts surveyed are using textbooks in a main academic area that are out-of-date–at least 8 years old. About 22 percent of districts have books at least 15 years old.

Some schools have too few books to go around, forcing students to share and limiting teachers’ ability to assign homework.

Shortages and old books, however, hardly register in Springfield, where lawmakers decide how much to spend on books.

Jesse Ruiz, chairman of the Illinois State Board of Education, which advises lawmakers on the budget, said he didn’t hear any complaints about textbooks in hearings earlier this year.

But Maureen Waters, a teacher at Richards Career Academy High School on the South Side, told the Tribune that her contemporary history class uses a 1988 text that ends with the Reagan presidency.

posted by Rich Miller
Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 6:13 am

Comments

Who’s in charge of public education in Illinois? Oh, that’s right. Sorry.

Can’t wait for Rod to go to battle for New Trier.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 6:29 am
New Trier gouging north shore parents? HORRORS! What’s next? Finding out the Mercedes Benz dealer in Winnetka is charging $250 for an oil change?

I like the Tribune article. It assigns an easily understandable letter grade (’F') so that I quickly understand the severity of the situation, and then offers up the solution of ‘more money needed’.

The only studies I like more than these ‘Illinois currently gets an ‘F’ studies’ are the ones that start out ‘Illinois is ranked 49 out of 50 states in….more money is needed’

Never forget the mantra of the bureaucracy:

â€œFor years, critical services have been starved for resources. Now many are at the breaking point. Itâ€™s time to reduce the cuts and restore services.â€

Comment by Leroy Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 6:36 am
And how, pray tell, have the school administrators let this problem get out of hand? Excuse me, we are throwing BILLIONS of dollars at education. The education lobby can’t find a few hundred thousand to update text books?

This story is absolutely ridiculous. Sounds more like gross incompetence on the schools part rather than a lack of money. These districts have been squandering tax money on years putting in swimming pools, computer labs, and lights for the football field instead of doing what they are supposed to be doing.

Comment by Anonymous Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 6:53 am
They had $3 million to give to private schools (mostly Catholic) for books this year, so apparently they did have more than enough money to go around for public schools. Public schools got $24 million. (Sun-Times today is the source)

Comment by Jeff Trigg Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 7:11 am
To answer anon 6:29’s facetious attempt at humor:
The duly elected school board of each district is in charge of public education in their district of Illinois.Neither the state nor the governor is in charge of textbooks. I doubt that the New Trier district is in need of state dollars to buy textbooks if that is one of their priorities.

Comment by The original Bill Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 7:39 am
I live in New Trier’s district. They go the other way and buy new books constantly with the parents picking up the tab. Even if my 3 kids took the same classes within 5 years chances are the text wasn’t the same version. So maybe New Trier could recycle those books to other districts. Textbooks are co-written by teachers and they make $$$.

Comment by Backyard Conservative Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 7:40 am
Districts spend a lot more time and concern at board meetings worrying about how their athletic teams and their needs are doing than they worry about textbooks. For years, the tail has wagged the dog.

And, have you really looked into the school libraries? Many of them are starved for monies to purchase new materials for reading and research.

A few years ago, the ISBE purchased online resources for public schools. Students had access to online databases of periodicals and newspapers as well as access to other online resources for science and other subjects spread across the K-12 spectrum.

Then the budget axe fell and these were gone. Some districts that still had money purchased the services. In some cases, the online periodicals and newspaper databases came out of library budgets thereby making less money available for the purchase of reference, fiction, and nonfiction books, periodicals, etc.

Other districts simply did not have the money and dropped the services when the state no longer paid for them.

These helped level the field between the haves and have nots. Now, there is such a discrepency between the districts that you know students are not getting the quality of resources needed for meaningful learning.

Education is more than textbooks. Quality materials of all types should be available for our students if they are going to learn beyond rote memorization of facts to pass a test!

Comment by Nearly Normal Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 7:48 am
Nice to see that chairman Ruiz really has his elbow on the pulse of Illinois’ public schools

Comment by anon Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 8:27 am
One item that the Trib did not focus on in the series is that the cost of textbooks has completely gotten out of hand. I’m not one to deny businesses, like textbook publishers, the right to make a fair profit. But the price of college and high school textbooks has escalated dramatically in the past decade. These companies are ripping off school districts (and our children) for the sake of FAT profits.

Comment by Bluefish Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 9:17 am
If textbooks had a union and a right to strike and a PAC to influence school board elections, they’d get more attention in the budget, too. As long as increased state funding for schools keeps going to general state aid, everything but increased teacher salaries will get short shrift.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 10:27 am
I am really going to lose sleep over the people of Winnetka, Wilmette, and Kenilworth having to shell out money for books. Maybe with that money they could’ve saved, their kids will have to go Acapulco for spring break instead of Cancun.

Comment by Tinkerbell Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 10:33 am
It would be cheaper to buy them all laptops. Books? Who uses books, anymore? They are outdated by the time they arrive at the schools.

Comment by not voting for him Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 10:52 am
“Outdated” textbooks is a little alarmist. Most of the changes are marketing and packaging - more pictures, the “latest” fad instructional methodology. Other than history books and science books, most of the other books were probably better in the “old days” anyways. And an update supplement can take care of the first two.

Comment by Anon Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 10:57 am
I agree with Not Voting. How long will it be before you can read your book from home, current version, on the Web. You can already get downloads of many books through various library systems, free. Textbooks can’t be far behind. Scary for the textbook co’s? Maybe.

Comment by Cassandra Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 11:25 am
This sure hasn’t changed. I went to school in central IL and we had some very old text books. I remember history books that didn’t go up to Viet Nam (this was in the late 70’s early 80’s) and Math books that the teacher had purchased at a college text book sale. Nevertheless, I somehow managed to get a decent education thanks to some wonderfully gifted educators.

As long as they’re usable and there are enough of them, I really don’t see the big deal. And it’s definitely something that should fall under the local school district’s decision, not the state.

Comment by cermak_rd Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 12:13 pm
This article summarizes the utter lack of comprehension the suburban schools have with the reality of education in this state. The miserable disparity in funding the schools are provided is embarrasing. If a majority of the funding comes from local taxes great, but don’t expect downstate schools that can’t afford Air conditioning in August to feel sorry for suburban schools with indoor swimming pools for shelling out some cash for textbooks.

Yes the idea is supposed to be local control of schools via school boards. However, our ever piling beauracracy has put more and more regulations on the schools with little additional funding. The fact is the schools ultimately answer to the state. I live in an area where several grade schools feed one high school and it is absured the funding disparity for schools within a few miles of each other. We need real education reform, not just throw money at the problem and pretend it is ok now.

President Bush’s No child left behind is the subject much criticism, but to dates the dems have not had a better answer other then pretending everthing is ok.

Comment by the Patriot Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 12:28 pm
Patriot
The problem with no child left behind is that Bush left the money behind. It is a huge exercise in paper shuffling with little or no benefit to the student.It is just another typical unfunded gov’t mandate. “Real” education reform would require funding reform to end the disparities that you would refer to. i.e. a tax increase, which I am sure, given your right wing proclivities, you and your compatriots would object to.

Comment by The original Bill Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 12:47 pm
Textbooks are a crazy, crazy business, have been for decades. And I’m not just talking about the publishing scams where they fix some typos, add two pages in the index, and call it a new edition requiring complete re-stocking of the district’s supply, and making the used books invalid for coursework, so you can’t re-sell them to your bookstore or underclassmen at year’s end and recoup a little of your outlay. That was the main scam back in my college days, perpetuated because the proffs that selected books got a little dividend from the publishers for their “cooperation”.

The Nobel-winning nuclear physicist who helped figure out the Challenger disaster wrote a very disturbing book about the school textbook process. In a nutshell, selection boards in Texas and California drive everything, and badly. All the other states are too lazy or cheap to do the time consuming and intellectually rigorous work of vetting new books, so they just pick whatever these two states do, assuming they are competent.

The problem is the boards in Texas and California are dysfunctional. They are stacked with unqualified folks who bring weird agendas to the process. You get a result like my daughter’s social studies book with an encyclopedia of famous people in the back, that will list Louis Armstrong and Bessie Armstrong, but no mention of Neil Armstrong. WTF?!? Or like Feynman found, outright errors in math and science texts. I won’t even get into the inclusion of “Intelligent design” in science books… But it gets worse:

“Richard Feynman was one of the pre-eminent physicists of the twentieth century. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical work on quantum electrodynamics, a field of physics that describes how sub-atomic particles interact. He was a professor at Caltech, and famous for his ability to get to the core of an issue.

If you followed the Challenger disaster investigation, you might remember seeing him dump a rubber gasket in a glass of ice water to demonstrate why the gaskets allowed the rocket exhaust to burn a hole in the rocket. He was a thorough and direct man who preferred looking at the original data rather than read someone’s idea as to what the data meant.

He was asked to participate on a California textbook selection committee that was charged with evaluating textbooks for use in California public schools. He agreed, thinking it was a worthwhile use of his time.

When the book depository called and asked where to send the 300 pounds of books, they told him not to worry, they could send over someone to help him read the books. Feynman said he wasn’t quite sure how that would work and declined the offer of an assistant.

During the weeks that he was reading texts, he kept getting calls from the publishers. They wanted to take him out to dinner, lunch, wherever he wanted. They wanted to talk over the advantages of their textbook. He kept fending them off, saying he was confident he would be able to read the texts. Moreover, he knew that the teachers wouldn’t be receiving this kind of attention so he felt the books should be judged on their own merits.

One book in particular drew his attention. It was one out of a three book series. During a meeting he was asked by some of the other committee members what he thought of the book. He responded that he really couldn’t say, that he hadn’t received it. One of the members continued to press for an answer. After Feynman repeated himself a second time, a book depository employee piped up and explained that he had elected not to send the book on to the committee members. The publisher had missed the deadline and substituted a book with blank pages instead. They had included a note explaining that the book would be ready in time and hoped it could still be considered.

The amazing part of this story is that several of the committee members had nominated the book for inclusion on the approved list!

Feynman went on to talk about the unsolicited gifts he received from the publishers. He kept sending them back but one incident took him completely by surprise. He had arrived in San Francisco the evening before a committee meeting. He left his hotel room, intending to wander the streets to find a place to eat. As he walked into the lobby, two men popped up, greeted him by name and asked him if they could help him in any way. He explained that he was just going out and no thank you. They persisted. He said, “Look, I’m just going out to get into a bit of trouble.” They responded, “Maybe we can help you with that too.” He demurred and then later kicked himself for not seeing just how far they would go and documenting the evening.

The source for this story is Feynman’s autobiography, “Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman…”

——-

Rod talked big about dismantling “soviet style bureaucracy” in the Illinois Board of Ed, but here is something easy to understand, with long-reaching implications for our kid’s education, and it’s running on cruise control from out of state.

The other big problem regarding books goes back to uneven funding of districts because it’s based on property taxes. All politicians, not just lying Rod, talk a big game about educational equity and doing everything we can “for the children”. How can a district do that unde the present system? It can’t. Folks are desperate to send their kids to private schools because those schools have a little better handle on where and how to spend the money, and the parents, with their wallets, drive for results and demand (an get) immediate correction when things are not right. Why should public school parents expect any less?

Comment by Gregor Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 1:18 pm
Nearly Normal-

Have you actually visited any school board meetings? I would guess, based upon your name, that you live in or around Unit 5 in Normal. If that is the case, perhaps you should actually attend a school board meeting before you start throwing stones at the board. More time at the meetings on athletics…nothing like making absurd comments that are not based on facts to spur a discussion.

As for the New Trier issue…it is awfully hard to feel bad for the parents of kids in that district. New Trier is consistently near the top of the state list for spending per pupil. If the district cannot figure out how to include books in that cost, it’s obviously the fault of the board and administration. Reading that parent’s complaints made me sick to my stomach…her child goes to one of the best schools in the state where spending is through the roof and yet her complaint is about books? If she has a reall issue, elect new board members and pass on those old books to the districts with REAL problems.

Comment by the wonderboy Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 1:28 pm
Backyard Conservative: Textbooks are co-written by teachers and they make $$$.”

I call bulls**t on Backyard Conservative until I see some proof. Provide just one example (including ISBN, please, for verification) of a textbook used at New Trier that was co-written by a teacher there and I’ll shut up.

I’ll bet dollars to donuts B.C. cannot produce. Cheap shots at teachers are too fun to require evidence, right?

Comment by truth squad Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 3:16 pm
Wow! All of this over books. Most comments about local control are accurate. However, since we now have state wide tests and a defacto state wide curriculum, we might as well go the route of Texas, California, Kansas and other states and have one set of books for the entire state. My experience is that if there are six high school districts in the same county, they most likely are using six different American History books. The same is true for all subjects and this does not make much sense. Oh, if you think high school books and fees are a rip off, you most likely do not have a college student.

Comment by Eagle I Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 3:41 pm
I hear that the children in Iraq have new books, and about 1000 new schools to go with the new books.

Comment by B Hicks Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 4:22 pm
Can someone tell me what is the big deal about having a text that doesn’t go past the fall of the Berlin Wall or Reagan/Carter/Ford’s presidency or the Vietnam War?

Every history class I ever had cut the last few chapters out anyway, because they spent time on the important stuff.
The stuff that is important for a pupil to know over the last 300 years for American History and the last 5000 for World History didn’t happen in the last 30 years.
Who’s more important - Charlemagne or Carter?
Reagan or Roosevelt(s)?
George W or G Washington?
Clinton or Caligula?

Comment by OAD Tuesday, Apr 18, 06 @ 7:58 pm
Sorry, I meant in general. New Trier often uses college-level books and that is common there.There is a certain amount of mutual back-scratching.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, May 1, 06 @ 11:53 am
Last comment was from me, for the record.

Comment by Backyard Conservative Monday, May 1, 06 @ 11:55 am

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