"Across Illinois, students are resorting to duct tape and rubber bands to hold together decrepit textbooks. Other books are so woefully out-of-date they don't teach fundamentals  such as the fall of Soviet communism, a three-month Tribune investigation has found."
Chicago Tribune, April 16, 2006

"But in Cook County's Burbank District 111, elementary students still use the 10-year-old textbook that tripped them up during a field trip to the Adler Planetarium last fall. Asked how many moons Jupiter has, the children answered 16--the number in their 1996 book. But based on recent discoveries, the correct answer is more than 60."
Chicago Tribune, April 16, 2006

"Like blackboards and chalk, textbooks long have been an academic staple, and educators agree that they are here to stay even though laptop computers and electronic books are popular in some classrooms."
Chicago Tribune, April 16, 2006 Read entire article.

“Both chambers agreed that 65 percent of education dollars need to head straight to the classroom and be used only on instruction. That money would be spent on making sure the children have the textbooks and materials they need and that teachers receive regular pay raises.”
Representative Linda Harper Brown, 1/6/06, Dallas Morning News

"Providing laptops to every school kid is going to be a problem, because it costs more than $150...There are some districts that are going to be able to handle it, but there are some that won't."
Cliff Avery, executive director of the Textbook Coordinator's Association of Texas, 4/22/05, San Antonio Express News

Overview
The 2005-06 school year will be the first time classrooms will see new instructional materials in the enrichment subjects --which include, theatre, choir, band, foreign language, health and music-in nearly a decade. Educators in these enrichment areas are truly excited about the prospect of new instructional materials. The following are just some organizations tracking this adoption process closely. Visit these sites to learn more about how you can become involved.

• Texas Foreign Language Association - www.tfla.info
• Texas Music Educators Association - www.tmea.org
• GoArts.org Campaign - www.goarts.org
• Center for Educator Development in Fine Arts (CEDFA) - finearts.esc20.net/
• Texas Coalition for Quality Arts Education - www.txarts.net/tcqae/
• Texas Educators of Fine Arts - www.taea.org
• Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Educators - www.tahperd.org
• Textbook Coordinators Association of Texas - www.tcat.org
• North Texas Textbook Coordinators Association - www.nttca.org
• Texas Insider - www.texasinsider.org