Via Question Technology, Lawmakers in California have passed Assembly Bill 756, which would ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages. It goes on to the Senate next.

I don’t follow debates and reports on the state of our educational system closely, but this doesn’t sound like the way to shore up they quality of the education that our future generations are going to need to compete in the future.

The Sacramento Bee (Use www.bugmenot.com for login.) reports on the bill and has comments by Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Los Angeles Democrat who chairs the Assembly Education Committee:

California schools are teaching kids with the same kinds of massive books that were used generations ago, though the world has changed significantly, Goldberg said.

The workplace increasingly demands more than the ability to read Page 435 of some manual.

It requires expertise in using the Internet to research and solve problems, according to Goldberg.

I do not know where Jackie Goldberg gets her understanding of what the workplace needs. The workplaces that I’ve been in benefit significantly from people who are willing to use books as a resource. I am a software developer. I’ve got some terrific books that are less than 200 pages, but I don’t know how I would be able to do my job if it wasn’t for some of the 800-1000 page books that I’ve read. The bane of the projects that I’ve worked on is the person who is too lazy to delve into books to understand the theory and practice of what we were trying to accomplish. There are people who think that you can go online and get the information that you need and that it?s all on the Internet. It’s not.

AB 756 would force publishers to condense key ideas, basic problems and basic knowledge into 200 pages, then to provide a rich appendix with Web sites where students can go for more information.

People who go to the Internet for information come back with only a fraction of the story.

Before lawmakers start deciding to send students to the Internet for their knowledge, don’t you think it would make sense for them first to pass a law that requires textbook publishers provide full-text, hyperlinked and searchable versions of their 800+ page textbooks on the web?

YES! The Internet is wonderful and it’s a good starting place for research, but where on the Internet is the comprehensive text on trigonometry, physics, calculus, American history, biology. A 200-page book is akin to what the Internet can provide: The overview on the topic. Have you ever tried to find complete and comprehensive information about a topic on the Internet?

One of my favorite uses of the Internet is to find recommendations for the best books to read on any particular topic. Then I buy or borrow the book, and do most of my learning in a comfortable spot away from the computer.

What do you think about AB 756?