March 10, 2010
The Texas State Board of Education may no longer be calling the shots for textbook publishers. The board has been known for their disagreement of controversial topics such as evolution. Due to declining education budgets, the Texas State Board was not able to purchase textbooks last year, and publishers were free to determine the content of textbooks without the pressure from the Texas State Board. Additionally, legislative decisions have caused the classroom to reform its technology to include more online sources rather than relying solely on textbooks.
State Representative Scott Hochberg said, “This isn’t all some big conspiracy to take power away from the state board. This is about getting better materials for kids and spending less taxpayer money to do it.”
To read more about the potential change in power, see “Texas’ influence of textbooks could wane” from The Statesman.