Why Our Kids Aren't S-M-R-T

Somewhere in Texas there's a $324 million goldmine hidden inside a nondescript warehouse.

The less sensational bit is that this small fortune is actually in the form of educational textbooks - hundreds upon thousands of texts covering fine arts, foreign languages, music, and health.

Way back in 2002, the State Board of Education requested and received authorization from the State House of Representatives and Senate to acquire desperately needed textbooks to replace the weathered, beat-up ones that students and teachers must currently contend with. Some of these antiquated relics, it seems, are older than the teachers who must teach from them.

After receiving the mandate in 2002, the State Board of Education initiated a lengthy sequence of actions in order to ensure that kids would have updated resources by the time the school year restarts this year. But it was only after lengthy reviews and selections by educators, approval by school boards, coordination with publishers, and right before delivery of the textbooks did it become apparent that no funding had been allocated to buy the books!

So now the books are left to gather dust as teachers twiddle their thumbs, unable to prepare lesson plans for the upcoming term as it's still unclear whether these books will ever end up in their classrooms. Meanwhile, lawmakers continue to debate in the House of Representatives whether they're willing to pony up the funds.

And on a somewhat unrelated note, in this month's Harper's Index we find out the astronomical sum spent lobbying Congress in 2004: $3 billion.

You can make your voice heard by contacting your State Representative and Senator, or call the Governor's office at 512-463-2000.