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Arizona Politicos Want State Control of Textbooks

Local school districts in Arizona would lose the authority to choose their own textbooks under a plan promoted by a state senator and endorsed by the state superintendent of public instruction.

The bill would give the state Board of Education the responsibility of selecting textbooks for children in kindergarten through 12th grade. The ultimate goal: stricter regulation of what students learn so they will improve their scores on standardized tests.

"United States history, for instance, should be the same for everyone," said Sen. Robert Blendu, R-Litchfield Park, who will introduce the legislation next month. "It's crazy to have different versions of the same thing. No wonder they can't pass the test."

Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne is embracing Blendu's proposal, saying the effort to standardize textbooks has academic merit.

The legislation would create a 10-member task force to come up with an initial list of books by the end of 2004. By mid-2005, the Board of Education would provide an approved list from which school districts and charter schools could make their selection for subjects such as math, reading and science. The legislation puts no limit on the number of books to be included on the list.

The Arizona Education Association, representing teachers, questioned the need for the new strategy.

"It's not clear what problem the senator is trying to fix," said John Wright, vice president of the association. "The consistency we have is the Arizona academic standards."

Dealing with a diverse student population requires flexibility, said Wright, who teaches elementary school at Window Rock on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona. , where most students are Native Americans.

Blendu's bill also elicited an outcry from parents who said textbook-adoption decisions should be left at the local level where parents have a say about which books will be purchased for their children.

"I don't like this idea at all," said Phoenix parent Karen Gatewood, whose daughter attends Valley Academy charter school. "Parents now serve on schools' textbook-adoption committees and have some control in the process, so I'm not comfortable with a task force making these decisions for all of our kids."

Janeen Nichols, whose children attend schools in Phoenix's Washington Elementary School District, also objected to the bill.

"Schools have different needs, so it doesn't seem fair to expect all schools to pick books from one list," she said.

Blendu and Horne say the proposed legislation would give parents and school administrators a voice as the task force creates its list of books.

Blendu said many students are failing the AIMS standardized test, the test that will be required for graduation in 2006, and that dozens of schools do not meet federal standards.

He said his bill is based on the approach in California, Texas and Florida, where state school boards have the authority to choose textbooks. Records show that more than 20 states take a similar approach. Opinions differ about how successful the strategy has been.

Proponents say uniform textbook adoptions have benefited students because book publishers, eager to secure multimillion-dollar contracts with these states, produce better textbooks that fall in line with the states' standards. Some critics view the laws as an attempt by legislators to usurp districts' autonomy.

"This turns it into 'big business,' and that's scary in a state where legislators aren't that keen on properly funding schools to begin with," said Andrea Erickson, principal of Whitman Elementary School in Mesa.

"I'd be worried that this would give legislators more power over those funds."


— Elvia Díaz and Mel Meléndez
Officials want state control of textbook choices
Arizona Republic
2003-12-09
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1209textbooks09.html

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