Districts Spending Millions on Error-Filled Math Textbooks. If you are an elementary school student in the Sacramento Unified or Folsom-Cordova Unified school districts, your new math textbook instructs you that "3 x 5 = 5." That's not the only mistake – fourth-grade students have documented 90 errors in the books.
The two districts spent $1.9 million combined on the new math books. It is likely that many other districts in California also have wasted hard-earned taxpayer dollars on the books.
Teachers also are weighing in. A teacher in Sacramento Unified said the district had a wonderful program with Saxon Math and replaced it with an inadequate one. (Source: The Sacramento Bee, April 1, but not an April Fools' Day joke.)
Cal-Tax recommendation: Schools are trying to blame the publisher, but someone in the school districts should take some responsibility for thoroughly checking a textbook before spending $1.9 million on it. If the districts had done their homework, they could have refrained from purchasing the books with the errors, and could have purchased another series. On a more fundamental basis, when schools are strapped for money and cutting important instructional programs, why buy new books? Schools should make the old books last a year or two longer, especially in a subject like elementary school math, which does not change much from year to year.
Cal-TaxReports, April 12, 2010
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