Governor Speaks in Calabasas

(Photo from Daily News) CALABASAS, CA–Hundreds of students and faculty gathered Monday at Calabasas High School to welcome Arnold Schwarzenegger to campus where he appeared with school officials to speak about the plan to make California the first state to introduce a digital textbook.

Advocates of the plan say the books would save money, be constantly updated and be more environmentally friendly then current texts. This program could be approved by the state as early as this fall, providing free digital textbooks for specific classes like math and science.

Schwarzenegger was at the Calabasas campus for about an hour before heading back to Sacramento to continue California budget talks but showed overwhelming support of this proposal.

“Basically kids are feeling as comfortable with (their electronic devices) as I was with my pencils and crayons. Textbooks are outdated, in my opinion,” said Schwarzenegger.

State public schools like Calabasas High are looking at reductions of about $11.6 billion in the budget approved this February and Schwarzenegger added $5 billion to that number with his deficit-cutting proposal.

However, two bills promoting digital textbooks are moving through the legislature now. California Department of Education spokeswoman Hilary McLean said, “from a policy perspective this is absolutely the right thing to do.”

Not surprisingly, the opposition is coming from the paper-textbook publishers.

Schwarzenegger said this digital textbook plan could save a 10,000-student school district up to $2 million. There will be technical costs associated with this plan but Schwarzenegger hopes to save hundreds of millions of dollars statewide in the next couple years.

See more on this story at the Daily News and USA Today.