and then think about how many classes actually teach on that material... especially high school classes... how many people were taught WWII in HS? I have a book on the topic of the "Calculus of Variations"... it relates to optimizing integral forms... it cost $12 and it was written in 1953. Many classes can be treated the same way... and hell, in China and India it is treated that way. While I'm sure they update the information in hand the books cost a pittance. Why can't we have it the same way? For that matter, how many people have actually read their textbooks? Around USCHO i'm sure the ratio is much higher but in general many students will never ever extract the value of a glossy diagram with a cartoon. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be a luddite... but when foreign nations use books for cents on the dollar and maintain a decently educated class it has to make you challenge some first principles. You think China prints a $125 social studies text for their 6th graders? While I don't want to idealize Chinese society, I think the necessity of such texts are rather questionable when they're just going to be used to curve a kids spine.... so if we're in front of a budget crisis why not find some amenable solutions?
edit: I have to wonder if its possible to formulate an entire Grade 1 to Grade 12 math education into a series of texts costing no more than $120... may be a tad low... $10 per year? I know other subjects aren't so simple... but my mind wonders how simple it could be.
Thankfully I have not now, nor have I even been Texas. (I mean this as I wrote it.)
There is good and there is superfluous... a decent library and a cheaply set up computer lab is well within the reach of places I would think.
