9486 in the collection  

Cash-short schools scrimp on textbooks

How many members of the Business Roundtable or New York Times editorial writers screaming for teachers to do a better job dig into their pockets for basic office supplies?

Karen Bouffard

The English Department at Redford Union High School doesn't have the money to replace tattered novels that are required reading in Steve Losey's ninth-grade English class.

So Losey followed the lead of colleagues in cash-starved districts throughout Metro Detroit and dipped into his pocket for $100 to buy 15 copies each of four books. The district keeps a special fund to pay for major textbook purchases, but it doesn't stretch to cover everything.

"Some of our novels are so worn out they're held together by Scotch tape," Losey said.

It's a familiar lament as Michigan's school funding crisis deepens. In an age of flat school aid and skyrocketing health care and retirement costs, Shakespeare sometimes is a casualty, as districts postpone replacement of aging texts that can cost as much as $100 each.

"In years past, we would typically replace books every six years or seven years, but we've now moved that to every nine or 10 years," said Sheila Alles, director of academic services for Livonia Public Schools. "We have increased costs for everything from gas to retirement that we can't control, so things that we can control get reduced."

The crunch is exacerbated as districts scramble to meet tough new standards that require students, starting with this year's incoming ninth-graders, to meet higher benchmarks in English, math, social studies and science to graduate.
New standards add to issue

In Livonia alone, it will cost $375,000 for new high school algebra, biology, English and government texts. In some cases, more students will take those classes to meet the requirements. In others, district officials must buy books to make them more grade-appropriate.

"When the state gave us these new requirements they failed to give us the money we need to implement them," Alles said. "There were no additional funds to purchase books, or to train teachers to implement the new curriculum or to use the textbooks."

Costs to alter coursework vary by district. Officials in some districts, such as Livonia, insist they need more books to meet the mandates, but state officials said that's not necessarily the case.

Jan Ellis, spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, urged schools to be "creative" by finding materials on the Internet and sharing with other districts.

"There are lots of different vehicles (districts can use to) meet the requirements, and it would be wise to explore those before ordering new textbooks," Ellis said.

But the standards come as state aid payments to districts remain flat, increasing an average of just 2.6 percent annually over the past five years. That's less than inflation and some districts are shelving building repairs, dipping into savings and borrowing money to buy books school officials claim are needed to meet the requirements.

At the Crestwood School District in Dearborn Heights, officials aren't fixing outdated boilers and leaking windows so they can buy books, Superintendent Laurine VanValkenburg said. Garden City bought $300,000 in high school and elementary math texts by spreading out payments over three years.

"It doesn't solve the problem, but it does help us trying to renew our curricular materials with less funds," said Susan Collins, director of curriculum and instruction for Garden City Schools.

There is no movement to fund the graduation mandate in the Legislature, which has struggled most of the year to adopt the budget.
Too few texts to take home

But forgoing books often bears costs of its own, according to Cathy Perini, president of the Rochester Education Association, the teachers' union in the district.

"Teachers worry all the time that if they don't get the textbooks they'll end up printing tons and tons of supplemental materials, which is also an expense," Perini said.

In Detroit, money is so tight some schools don't allow students to take books home, prompting a grassroots group, the Coalition to Restore Hope To Detroit Public Schools, to ask Lansing policymakers to intervene.

"We don't have enough copies for the children to have a copy to take home," said Jennifer Shelton, principal at Ludington Middle School in Detroit.

"At one time, when the district was solvent, we had the ability to have two sets of books -- one for school and one to take home -- but it has been quite a while since we've had that luxury."

Parent Jennifer Woodard said she'd like to help her 11-year-old son, Simuel, with math homework, but teachers at Langston Hughes Academy send him home with assignments that are copied from books. Many times, the sheet refers to a page in a book that he can't take home, Woodard said.

Organizer Chris White said the group wrote to state lawmakers and Michigan Board of Education President Kathleen Strauss on Oct. 25, demanding an investigation.

Strauss said there's nothing she can do to help the parents. In Michigan, it's up to each district to select and fund its own textbooks.

However in Texas, the state Board of Education issues a list of approved texts. Books from the approved list are funded by the state, according to DeEtta Culbertson, of the Texas Education Agency which oversees K-12 public education in that state. Money for the books comes from a special fund supported, in part, by gas and oil revenues.

"By law, the (Michigan) Board of Education has no authority to order school districts to allow students to take books home," Strauss said.

"But this upsets me very much. As sad as it is, they just don't have the money to buy extra books for children to take home. They need the books, and we would like to help them, but there's nothing we can do."


— Karen Bouffard
Detroit News
2007-12-11
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071211/SCHOOLS/712110393

---

INDEX OF OUTRAGES

Pages: 380   
[1] 2 3 4 5 6  Next >>    Last >>