CA Lawmaker To TX: Your Textbooks Are Not Welcome Here

from TPM:



CA Lawmaker To TX: Your Textbooks Are Not Welcome Here
Ben Frumin | April 29, 2010, 1:02PM


California state Sen. Leland Yee (D) doesn't want Texas teaching his state's kids.

Yee has introduced a bill that would require California's board of education to review in-production textbooks before they're purchased and reject any that have been influenced by Texas' new conservative standards.

Texas' new standards require students to learn about "the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s," the Contract with America, NRA and Heritage Foundation -- and replace Thomas Jefferson's place in a world history standard with Thomas Aquinas and John Calvin, among other things.

Because Texas is one of the country's largest textbook markets -- and because textbook makers want a single set of textbooks to be used nationwide -- it's possible that Texas' conservative curriculum could go national.

But not to California. At least not if Yee has anything to say about it.

"We here in California, those are not our values," said Yee spokesperson Adam Keigwin in an interview with TPM today.

"We're not gonna let another state dictate what we do in our classrooms." ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/04/ca-lawmaker-to-tx-your-textbooks-are-not-welcome-here.php

pick an economic war with a state that's in 10x the economic condition as your own...

For those who don't know... CA is broke, really broke and on the verge of bankruptcy.

You think California should roll over and accept modified Texas "schoolbooks" that are really just Pravda-like handbills for the Republican Party?

but I can imagine this turning into a big CA vs. TX nasty thing... we boycott their DELL computers and they boycott OUR (thinking for a moment what's STILL made in CA) strawberries!

I believe HP is still there, is it not?

And this isn't about computers anyway. This is about Texas school boards doing exactly what they bemoan day in and day out--trying to force their educational standards on other states.

I had read a story earlier where they were talking about a boycott over AZ and other staes who might pursue immigration legislation. So I was also thinking about that...


But regarding CA... we're famous for chasing business out of state. Prime examples:

In a February 24, 2010 Orange County blog, Jan Norman noted that ''an Irvine business relocation specialist has come up with a list of 100 California companies that have expanded elsewhere or pulled up stakes entirely (and left California) in this decade.''


The list includes the following, among others:



Abraxis Health (Los Angeles), Apple Computer, Assurant Inc. (Orange County), Automobile Club of Southern California, Bazz Houston Co. (Garden Grove), Beckman Coulter (Brea), BPI Labs (Sacramento), CalPortland Cement (Riverside County), Checks To-Go, Creators Syndicate (L.A.), DaVita Inc. (L.A.), Digital Domain (Venice), Ditech (Costa Mesa), DuPont Fabros Technology (Santa Clara), eBay (San Jose), Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine), Facebook (Palo Alto), FallLine Corporation (Huntington Beach), Fidelity National Financial (Santa Barbara), First American Corp.(Santa Ana), Fluor Corp. (Aliso Viejo), Hilton Hotels Corp. (Beverly Hills), Intel Corporation (Santa Clara), Intuit (Mountain View), J.C. Penny (Sacramento), Knight Protective Industries, Kulicke & Soffa Industries, Inc. (Irvine), Lennox Hearth Products Inc. (Orange), MiaSolA (Silicon Valley), Patmont Motor Werks, Inc., Pixel Magic (Toluca Lake), Premier Inc. (San Diego), Pro Cal of South Gate, Red Truck Fire & Safety Company (Fresno), Simple Tech (Santa Ana), Solar World (Camarillo), Special Devices Inc. (Moorpark), StarKist, Stasis Engineering (Sonoma County), Tapmatic (Orange County), Telmar Network Technology Inc. (Irvine), Terremark (Santa Clara), Terumo Cardiovascular Systems (Orange County), Toyota (Fremont), True Games Interactive (Irvine), Twentieth Century Props of L.A., U.S. Airways (Orange County), US Press (L.A.), USAA Insurance (Sacramento), Yahoo.



Specific reasons given for relocating vary but, in general, they all demonstrate dissatisfaction with the business climate in California:



Bazz Huston Co. “has slowly been building a workforce of about 35 people in Tijuana. The company said it expects to move more jobs to Mexico, citing cost and regulatory difficulties in California.
BPI Labs relocated to Evanston, Wyoming, a move the company’s owner called “very successful,” saying, “It felt good and I’ve never looked back.”
Workers comp rates in Utah help make Checks To-Go financially healthier.
Creators Syndicate said Los Angeles operates like a “banana republic.”
FallLine Corporation said they were being “hammered” with multiple government regulator fees in California.
Fidelity National Bank referred to California’s “oppressive” business environment.
Intuit of Mountain View created a customer support office with 110 people outside of California because of lower operating costs.
Knight Protective Industries moved to Oregon “where 4-day work weeks were permitted by the state” and wanted by their employees.
Lennox Hearth Products Inc., moved to Tennessee “to reduce costs and increase operating inefficiencies.”
Patmont Motor Werks Inc. (GoPed manufacturer) left California after being hit by California regulators for hundreds of thousands of dollars in small fines, even though his company has a stellar record.
Red Truck Fire & Safety Company left California “because of California’s myriad fees and regulations” that amounted to “death by a thousand cuts.”
Solar World moved to Oregon after the state offered property tax abatement and business energy tax credits.
Stasis Engineering moved to West Virginia where there is “a friendlier business climate.”
Tapmatic’s owners were “fed up with the onerous business environment.”
Twentieth Century Props of LA. went out of business as film-making moved to lower-cost states.
US Press shifted work to Portland, “where union rules were almost rational.”

“The list will undoubtedly grow as Sacramento considers more measures that will increase corporate taxes, increase workers' comp costs, increase regulatory reporting requirements (along with higher fines for minor infractions), increase gasoline and diesel-fuel taxes, increase water rates, increase electric-power rates, and increase assorted fees that will cause services to become more expensive.”



Keep in mind that the list from which the foregoing was taken named over 100 companies that have taken flight from California. It reads like a Who’s Who of corporate America in California, and it appears that there is no end in sight to the exodus of firms from the “Golden State” to escape the oppressive regulatory and tax climate that harasses California businesses.



This trend is one of the major reasons for the state’s high rate of unemployment, which was 12.5% in January, with the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area at 15%.

I mean, by your logic, the following scenario is acceptable: (for the sake of argument) Texas manufactures all the contraceptives distributed in the US. Texans decide (as some conservatives believe) that not allowing a sperm and egg to join is tantamount to murder. They pass a law criminalizing both contraceptive manufacture and use in Texas. So the rest of the US should just go along to get along because Texas has clout? We shouldn't worry about all those people who either need oral contraceptives for other reasons (excessive bleeding, health issues, etc) or don't want to catch STDs so they use condoms.... or heaven forbid don't want to have more kids they can't afford.

I can't imagine who in their right mind would find that an acceptable situation...I mean, unless they are a conservative.

nt

Oh wait--you were trying to be serious?

Now that's really funny. Texas economy 10x better than California's--not exactly.

Is that it?

...it's about time someone stood up to the ridiculous charade of textbook content that is shaped by ultra-conservative yahoos in Texas.

The fact that California is having troubles right now, does not detract from the fact that it is still the most populous state in the nation, and still has the 7th largest economy in the world. So yes, California still does have considerable clout when it comes to purchasing textbooks.

Go, Yee! Here's hoping the state listens and tells these Texas asshats where they can stuff their history texts!

But in this crazy digital space-age, every state - and maybe even every school district - could have different textbook content from the same publisher and the economics would not be much different.

I don't get why Texas is still influencing textbook content.

if they can not control the facts (information)

at least i think he said it...

those that control the past, control the future.

I think textbooks in general are a scam.

These books are $110-$200 in every college bookstore and they revise the books with a new version every 3-4 years. Every semester... BAM $500-$600 in books. I even had Professors who wrote the book they use in class, lol... so they're guaranteed a couple hundred sales per school year.

They are for grade school and possibly high school. Every college class has different books they want their students to use. Even two colleges in the same city use different books.

Wave of the future.

My daughter is in fifth grade here in CA, and I've been worried about this.

and let Texas pay a premium for their own "special" textbooks. Why should the country's schoolchildren be subjected to the opinions of a few cretins?

on the national textbook market. It has been going on far too long.

We've got to stop the idiocracy before it happens. If we don't do it, we'll have a populace that will readily welcome more bills like the one passed in Arizona without any questioning or protest.

It is time to stop the RW propaganda and start reintroducing critical thinking skills into the class room.

K&R