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Perry under pressure to veto electronic textbooks measure
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AUSTIN -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry, facing an expected tough re-election primary campaign against Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, is under pressure from conservatives in his party to veto a recently-passed measure by the Legislature which would strip further authority from the elected State Board of Education over textbook selection.
House Bill 4294, backed by the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA), would empower the state Commissioner of Education to create a list of approved textbooks in electronic form which local schools would then be able to choose from if they so desired for adoption at the local level.
A spokeswoman with the governor's press office, contacted by phone Wednesday, said the governor "hasn't read the bill yet" and "doesn't feel he should comment about possible action before he's read it."
The bill would enable the Texas Education Agency to completely bypass the State Board of Education, which traditionally has the authority to review textbooks selected by the state for suitability. Textbook hearings have in the past been rowdy affairs with partisan politics heavily influencing selection.
Proponents say the measure would give local school districts more flexibility in selection of electronic curriculum, but conservatives see the move as yet another attempt to eliminate elected oversight over the state's education bureaucracy.
"HB 4294 is a backdoor way for unscrutinized, digitized textbooks to be placed in front of our children's eyes," charges teacher Donna Garner, an activist in the English/Language Arts curriculum arena. "HB 4294 creates a separate Commissioner's List with no public hearings and no SBOE authority over the content of the digitized textbooks. Any publisher with any kind of agenda could reach every public school student in this state, and parents would have absolutely no recourse to stop it."
Garner and others have created an online petition urging Perry to veto the measure.
Introduced by State Rep. Dan Branch (R-Austin) and sponsored in the Senate by State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano), the bill got bipartisan support en route to passage. Supporters insist it is necessary to enable local school districts to quickly access online and digital technologies to improve student learning -- but pointedly neglect to address the question about elected oversight.
"HB 4294 is about flexibility. It will allow local school districts the ability to choose cutting-edge, relevant content that will best meet the needs of their students," wrote TASA executive director Johnny Veselka in the San Antonio Express-News. "Schools would have the ability to use state textbook funds to purchase a much wider range of relevant, up-to-date instructional materials and technological equipment."
In addition to politicians, the bill received strong lobbying support from computer giant Hewlett-Packard, which stands to reap substantial financial rewards if schools around the state opt for more electronic curriculums and more laptop learning centers.
"I don't think anyone is arguing that we don't need to move toward more electronic textbooks," said State Board of Education member David Bradley (R-Beaumont). "The nasty part of the bill ... is that it bypasses the state board. Textbooks are defined as both paper and electronic. The big issue is will parents lose control over content?"
Garner, who authored part of the state's new English/Language arts standards, says the problem with computers and electronic curricula is mechanical unreliability and the fact that studies have shown little or no improvement in student achievement when moving away from traditional bound textbooks.
Testifying before the state Senate on May 19, Garner quoted figures from the Texas Technology Immersion Pilot program--in which a control group of students was taught entirely with electronic textbooks-- and concluded: "...little, if any, positive student academic achievement was attained. Instead, laptops broke, costing large sums to repair. Student self-directed learning did not show positive gains ...Laptop students during all but the fourth year attended school less regularly."
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