History Of The California Text Book Plan Classic Reprint

Excerpt from History of the California d104-Book Plan What is known as the California d104book System began when the legislature of 1883 submitted the Perry amendment to the constitution, providing for state publication of textbooks, in the following words: "Sec. 7. The governor, superintendent of public instruction, and the principals of the state normal schools, shall constitute the State Board of Education, and shall compile, or cause to be compiled, and adopt a uniform series of textbooks for use in the common schools throughout the state. The state board may cause such textbooks, when adopted, to be printed and published by the superintendent of state printing at the state printing office, and when so printed and published to be distributed and sold at the cost price of printing, publishing, and distributing the same. The textbooks so adopted shall continue in use not less than four years." This was adopted by the people by an almost unanimous vote in November, 1884, and was followed by the necessary enabling legislation in 1885. By 1886 the State Board had prepared and the state printer had published four books, by use of an appropriation of $170,000, of which $20,000 was for compiling and $150,000 for plant, material and labor. The feeling of that time is interesting to observe as reported by W. T. Welcker, the superintendent of public instruction, in his report to the governor in 1886: "The opponents of this measure (the Perry amendment), although they were not successful, were able and fiercely zealous. It was indeed a novel experiment and a great departure from all known methods. In opposition it was urged that the State Board of Education would prove incompetent; that granting their ability to discharge their appropriate duties, this was a work of expertism of a rare and special kind; that the preparation of school textbooks was a trade in itself which required years of training in that particular business. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.