As before, [Texas] will set a maximum cost for each book. Say that’s $80 for a math book, making a district of 1,000 students eligible for $80,000 in materials. But new rules allow a district to purchase only a "classroom set" — which stays in the room, to be used by different students all day — from the list approved by the state school board, rather than a book for every child. Previously, district had no incentive not to buy every child a book — the state was paying, and the district would get none of the savings for buying less. Further, most publishers offered electronic versions of the material only as a package deal with the printed book.
Say the district buys 200 books instead of 1,000. That leaves $64,000 in credit. The districts could then turn to a state new list of digital curriculum offerings — approved by the commissioner instead of the state board. The district might spend half the remainder on an interactive math program, delivered on a CD or over the Web — which state officials hope will eventually cost much less.
What’s left, $32,000, would be considered savings on instructional materials, and would be split evenly between the district and the state. The district could then spend $16,000 on hardware, say, laptops for one math class or graphing calculators for everyone. The same scenario might play out in every subject area.
Found this courtesy of Doug Levin, http://twitter.com/douglevin/status/5588469170
It will be fun to see how this plays out over the next few years. Lots of interesting paths are possible!
