The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of the state of California, said, “So basically kids are feeling so comfortable today, as a matter of fact, as comfortable with their cell phones and with their keyboards as I did when I was your age, when I was a kid, with my pencils and crayons. …
“So this is why I think it is so important that we move on from the textbooks. The textbooks are outdated, as far as I’m concerned and there’s no reason why our schools should have our students lug around these antiquated and heavy and expensive textbooks. California is the home of Silicon Valley. We are the world leader in technology and innovation, so we can do better than that.
“That’s why I’m so excited about California’s Digital Textbook Initiative. Starting this fall with high school math and science, we will be the first state in the nation—the first state in the nation to provide schools with a state-approved list of digital textbooks. Think about this.
” … if we have a choice between textbooks or having more teachers in the school, I pick more teachers in the school and provide the textbooks digitally through this means, which is more exciting. So that’s what the bottom line is, to cut to the chase.
” … Well, I think that each district has that choice to make. And I think that you can directly hear from our education leaders, they can tell you how they make those decisions.
” … But I would say that, because of the amount of money it frees up—you know, when you talk about in the whole state of California, $300 million to $400 million—and that’s just if you do the math and science books. Now if you add all the other books, you can have an additional gain of a few hundred million dollars and that is important money that we can use for hiring teachers and keeping teachers in place so that we can reduce class size and get more effective learning done.
” … You guys (students) just have one responsibility and that is to study hard and to think about your education and your future. And also simultaneously think about what can you do with your knowledge and with your gifts to help those that are less fortunate. We always think about the double track. What can you do for yourself and what can you do for others that maybe are not as bright as you are or not as privileged as you are, not as talented, whatever. So that’s the only responsibility I think at this point that you have.
” … To me it’s amazing, when you think about it, that for so many years and decades we are trying to teach the kids exactly the same way. I mean, we’ve got to update this, because I have four kids and anyone that has kids knows that they love being on the computer and they love getting their information there.
“I had my son look at geography and learn geography and all of a sudden he showed me that on that video there was like you take a trip on the Thames River in England, right up the river. And he was excited about seeing that and therefore he could study where that river is and how long is it and how many cities it goes through and all of this information. He was fascinated because he saw it right there, rather than opening up this thick textbook and trying to retrieve this information from the textbook.
“So I think it’s a no-brainer, this one. I think that a lot of school districts will follow this school district here. But this school district, you should know, is really a leader in this thing and a leader in trying always to figure out what makes students stay here, what makes them excited studying and doing physical education and doing their homework and wanting to go on and educate themselves after they get out of here and graduate from this school. So that is really terrific.”
Governor Holds Press Conference with Education Officials Regarding Digital Textbooks Initiative – Video and Text June 8, 2009 Speech, Calabasas High School, Las Virgenes Unified School District, California.