LVX House

Is the Texas outlook the shaper of the Western education system? It seems some conservative Board of Education members would like to think so, at least by leveraging their buying power as the largest Textbook buyer in the country, and where the money flows, so the ideas go.

You can read the whole story on Religion Dispatches – Art(ful) History in Texas

The broader question I see is rather than rely on one or two large textbook publishers, why don’t states (or districts for that matter) take to printing their own books, with their own curriculum and their own local ideals, with perhaps a set standard of things to be taught, established by board education?

With the costs of print on demand such, a district could produce a quantity of books as they needed, and as they need more, at a cost that would allow the student to take the book with them at the end of the year. Especially as the e-book readers are becoming more prevalent, an ambitious state could commission a text book of their own, mix and match with book publishing companies, or license the book files form the publisher and print the books as needed.

Lots of exciting possibilities.