textbooks

Great new video from BraveNewFilms about the textbook controversy in Texas.

Since January, Republicans on the board have passed more than 100 amendments to the 120-page curriculum standards affecting history, sociology and economics courses from elementary to high school. The standards were proposed by a panel of teachers. . .

I'm here to tell ya... I've been through this battle before. It didn't end well for the right wing nutbars on the board.

The recent vote to rewrite textbooks by the conservative dominated Texas State Board of Education has received a great deal of attention over the last few days. The lesson that we as progressives need to take away from it is one that conservatives internalized long ago: people that are elected to "downballot" races can have a lot of power in shaping the direction of our communities, states, and the country as a whole.

The textbook industry is dominated by a few large states. One of the most important is Texas. Since the mission of textbook companies is to sell books, they cater their content to the whims of those states that have large enough markets to make demands. What this means is that the Texas State Board of Education is really setting textbook standards for a large portion of the country.

In the past we have mostly focused on the big prizes: the White House, U.S. House and Senate, and governorships. Downballot races don't get anywhere near the attention, especially outside their respective jurisdictions. As we now see, there are many students outside of the state of Texas that will be directly affected by what at its surface appeared to be a local election.

If you realize that the Texas State Board of Education ruling is not just a local issue and you want to help, here are some things you can do:

• Support the Texas Freedom Network, an organization that specifically fights the religious right's attempts to hijack education.
• Follow Democratic candidates for the Texas State Board of Education like Rebecca Bell-Metereau (@voterebecca) and Judy Jennings (@VoteJudyJ)

Stand with Texas progressives to shift the control of the State Board of Education, and remember that these local races are local in name only and affect us all.

- Sujatha Jahagirdar, Student PIRGs

Textbook prices are way out of control and professors are joining the fight to bring them down. Students spend an average of $900 a year on textbooks, which is equal to 20% of tuition at an average university and 50% of tuition at a community college. Textbook companies manipulate the market to drive prices as high as possible and students end up footing the bill.

The Student PIRGs have spent the past year organizing professors to sign the Open Textbooks Statement which is a commitment to consider using free, open source textbooks, instead of expensive, traditional textbooks. As of this week, about 2,000 professors have added their names to the statement, with more joining every day.

I'm playing catchup today after 4 days in DC. Here's some stuff I missed while I was away. In reverse chronological order:

• The Project on Student Debt is encouraging the incoming administration to include student aid as part of the economic stimulus package. Here's a letter they sent (pdf) to Speaker Pelosi on the subject.
• The Project on Student Debt is also sending letters to Hank Paulson, demanding that he bail out students along with multi-billion dollar corporations. Sign the letter here.
• At the New American Foundation's Higher Ed Watch Blog, Luke Swarthout outlines a fair textbook policy that could alleviate economic pressures on students and break the oligopoly of the big three text book publishers. For more on this, visit Make Textbooks Affordable.
• The Democratic Strategist has a new paper outlining how Democrats can keep the support of young white working class voters.
• In The Nation, Kristina Rizga continues to ask "you voted, now what?" This time, she profiles Juan Reynosa of New Mexico Youth Organized, a member group of the Bus Federation.
• My Change.org Idea - National Election Day Registration - is tied for third place in the Civic Engagement category. The top three vote-getters in each category by December 31st will move on to round two. Go vote for my idea!
• At Personal Democracy Forum, Micah Sifry revels more about what a potential Obama for America 2.0 will look like.
• YP4 announced it's 2009 Fellows. Congrats to FM friend Ian Magruder for snagging a spot.
• In the Washington Times, Ben Domenech argues that Republicans must fight for young voters. Not because they will win, but because any victory for the GOP relies on at least cutting into Obama's 2 - 1 victory margin among Millennials.
• A study by Anderson Analytics shows that blogging is increasing in popularity among Millennials.