CALABASAS — California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is saying goodbye to heavy textbooks and hello to the digital age. Schwarzenegger announced plans to rid schools in the state of textbooks in favor of digital books, a measure he calls California’s Digital Textbook Initiative.
"Kids, as you all know, today are very familiar with listening to their music digitally and online and to watch TV online, to watch movies online, to be on Twitter and participate in that and on Facebook and all of those kinds of things," said Schwarzenneger during a press conference earlier this week at Calabasas High School. "So this is why I think it is so important that we move on from the textbooks. The textbooks are outdated, as far as I’m concerned and there’s no reason why our schools should have our students lug around these antiquated and heavy and expensive textbooks. California is the home of Silicon Valley. We are the world leader in technology and innovation, so we can do better than that."
Schwarzenegger said that the digital books would not only help students but also the state, which faces a $24-billion budget deficit.
Schwarzenegger said the state would save hundreds of millions of dollars.
"The average textbook costs up to $100. So think about it, if each of California’s two million high school students use digital math and science books, that would mean that you could save the schools $300 to $400 million and that’s money that could be used for hiring more teachers or to make class sizes smaller," he said.
According to Schwarzenegger, California is the first state in the United States to introduce this kind of initiative.
He expects that there will be opponents of the initiative.
But he said that the state is lacking money and this is "a way to save money and provide those same services in education but for less money."
"I know this is, of course, a dramatic shift from the status quo and there is some resistance in some cases," said Schwarzenegger. "But I feel that this is the wrong time now to hold onto the status quo, because this is one of the worst economic and financial crises that the state has been in since the Great Depression."
"This is not at all kind of compensating for, or overcoming our budget crisis or the money that has been taken from the schools, not by any means," he added. "But it does help and this is what we want to do. So this is where the bottom line is, that digital textbooks will help."
( Published on July 13, 2009 in Asian Journal Los Angeles p. A1 )
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