Arizona school has bricks and mortar but no books

Students at Empire High School here started class this year with no textbooks – but it wasn’t because of a funding crisis.

Instead, the school issued iBooks – laptop computers by Apple Computer Inc. – to each of its 340 students, becoming one of the first U.S. public schools to shun printed textbooks.

School officials believe the electronic materials will get students more engaged in learning. Empire High, which opened this year, was designed specifically to have a textbook-free environment.

"We’ve always been pretty aggressive in use of technology, and we have a history of taking risks," said Calvin Baker, superintendent of the Vail Unified School District, which has 7,000 students southeast of Tucson.

Schools typically overlay computers onto their instruction "like frosting on the cake," Baker said. "We decided that the real opportunity was to make the laptops the key ingredient of the cake . . . to truly change the way that schools operated."

By Arthur H. Rotstein, Associated Press

Full Story: http://www.insidedenver.com/drmn/business/article/0,1299,DRMN_4_4013475,00.html

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Soaring textbook prices pinch students

By Francine Brevetti, BUSINESS WRITER

CONSUMER advocate CalPIRG calls it Rip-off 101 — College textbook prices have increased at nearly four times the rate of inflation since 1994.

CalPIRG, which has called on textbook publishers to lower their prices, said the average college student spends almost $900 a year on textbooks alone.

At California State University, East Bay (formerly Cal State Hayward), a student can expect to pay at least $250 per quarter and much more if she is majoring in sciences, said Sally Murphy, professor of communication and director of general education. So that’s at least $750 a year.

Full Story: http://www.insidebayarea.com/businessnews/ci_2955769