What if parents had to buy textbooks?

This is the third in a series of features about Fallbrook public school education.

A harried mom stands in the school office.

“I just moved to Fallbrook from Colorado and need a list of books and supplies for my fourth-grader,” she says. “Can you tell me where to buy them?”

This is not an unusual request from parents in Colorado and eight other states, so imagine the happy look on her face when she learns that California guarantees its kindergarten-through-12th-grade public school students a free education.

Even as district administrators eye their 2008-2009 budgets looking for ways to cut costs, some might wonder what they could do with the line item funding tagged “materials” if parents had to foot the bill directly.

Right now, the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District budget reflects $250,000 in unfunded math textbooks and another $250,000 for computer replacement.

Nothing is really “free” though, because the expenses for these items come at a considerable cost to taxpayers – most of it generated by property taxes, forecast to increase but unfortunately now falling off due to home foreclosures.

California is one of 21 states that require using carefully scrutinized adopted textbooks and educational programs for grades K through eight.

That’s why in California a fourth grade student might use a social studies textbook that covers the current presidency of George W. Bush, while in a rural area of another state, the last President reflected in textbooks is Ronald Reagan.

Textbooks and materials such as consumable workbooks vary in cost depending on the publisher and the subject matter.

For example, a science book that contains multiple colored photographs and illustrations would cost more than an English text, says Jay Diskey of the Association of American Publishers.

Diskey is the executive director of the school division.

While most people are familiar with hardbound novels that may only pass through one set of hands, California textbooks are used for six to eight years and have to stand up to the battering kids give them while they study.

Not only must the size and weight of texts pass guidelines – regulations dictate how much weight a student can lug around on his back – the paper quality, covers and binding have to endure until they’re replaced.

Further, the information must be correct and align with current testing standards.

Moreover, state standards for textbooks and educational materials like workbooks, CDs, project kits and lab supplies are among the highest in the US.

The unavoidable costs are complex.

Examples close to home include the average cost of textbooks for students in the Fallbrook Union Elementary School District: second grade, $138; sixth grade, $269; eighth grade, $284.

Multiply those costs by the numbers of students in a class: 20 students to one teacher in second grade – that’s the law – and the result is $2,764 per class.

Of course, materials which are consumed, like workbooks with tear-out pages, have to be replaced each year, while those in book form must last until their adoption cycle expires, thereby reducing the annual cost, but only marginally.

At the high school level, the costs of textbooks and materials escalate.

For a ninth grade student with an average class load of English, math, science and a foreign language, the cost is $365.

By 11th grade, a student taking English, American history, a science, language, college prep math and an elective would pay $390 for textbooks if they weren’t free to him.

Add to these expenses the cost of printer cartridges, paper for duplicating test materials and class handouts, chemicals and products for science experiments, hardware that breaks – like beakers – even equipment such as microscopes and computers, and the “free” cost of educating students is dizzying.

Adding to the textbooks’ cost is the effect of the Williams legislation that requires students have two sets of books, one at school and one that can be used at home.

Even though the materials are expensive, Diskey defends the costs by pointing out that in California, “less than one percent of school funding is spent on materials.”

Regardless, the cost of classroom materials continues to rise.

According to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, a congressional panel that offers policy advice to the US Department of Education, “from 1987 to 2004, textbook prices went up by roughly 100 percent, or nearly twice the inflation rate.”

Even though the state gives its public school districts $63 for each textbook needed, the cost per book often exceeds that amount, leaving districts looking for ways to make up the difference.

It’s an unfortunate dilemma that districts face as they crunch numbers and continue to look for ways to provide the best education possible within their schools.

So, lest parents shake their fists and blame school districts for budget cuts they believe are arbitrary, perhaps learning more about the cost of “free” education for their children will moderate their thinking.