Calif. pushes for electronic textbooks

  

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KABC) -- A California lawmaker is trying to lighten the load of backpack-lugging students, by making it easier for schools to provide electronic versions of textbooks.

State Senator Elaine Alquist (D-Santa Clara) has proposed a bill that would give school districts greater leeway in using state money on software that would make textbooks available on laptop computers and other electronic devices.

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The bill, SB 247, was approved by the state Senate Monday, and now goes to the Assembly.

"Today's K-12 students represent the first generation to have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cameras, cell phones, and all the other gadgets of the digital age," Alquist was quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times. "Today's students are no longer the students of blackboards and chalk."

According to the Times, Alquists's proposal has the support of the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has conducted a pilot program using electronic instructional materials.

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