If state lawmakers get their way, perhaps Illinois students may someday be lugging Cliffs Notes-sized dictionaries to school and replacing hefty atlases with road maps.
Heeding concerns that the postures of today’s youths are being ruined by heavy backpacks, the Illinois Senate voted 32-25 Friday to order the Illinois State Board of Education to develop weight standards for school textbooks.
The measure, which goes to the House, is sponsored by Sen. Donne Trotter (D-Chicago), who argued that children would be better prepared to learn if they didn’t have to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders to and from school.
“Children are more inclined to carry their books if they’re not that heavy, so it certainly could attribute to them doing better in school because they don’t have this big old bag that they have to lug around,” Trotter contended.
But the vote left several educators mystified over why lawmakers were moving more aggressively on textbook weight than on resolving a growing school funding crisis that has left many districts saddled with deficits and oversized classrooms.
“Of all the things to work on in a time when there’s no money and all these budget concerns,” said John Moss, director of special services at Glenbard Township High School District 87. “This particular bill doesn’t seem to me to be one of the highest priorities of the moment.”
Illinois wouldn’t be the first state to impose a diet on school textbooks if Trotter’s plan becomes law. But Maureen DiMarco, a senior vice president at textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin, complained that such legislation is a form of diversion for lawmakers who find it easier to tackle than more politically difficult education reforms.
“It sure sounds like you’re looking out for children, protecting their spinal health,” said DiMarco, a former secretary of education in California. “But you’re not really doing anything. And it’s a whole lot easier to tackle than finding an equitable school-funding system.”
Deadline set for 2006
Trotter’s measure, which he said was modeled after a Virginia law, would require the state board to issue maximum weight standards for textbooks by the middle of 2006. California has a similar law, which led to a state commission finding that textbooks for 2nd-graders ideally shouldn’t weigh more than three pounds, and books for high school sophomores shouldn’t tip the scales at more than five pounds.
The California panel concluded that it couldn’t regulate the number of books a student was allowed to carry, and it also didn’t want to scale back curriculum demands, which have a direct correlation to the thickness of schoolbooks.
So it urged textbook publishers to offer lighter options to schools: split volumes, books on computer disks and extra classroom sets. Such alternatives, however, can be pricey.
Industry experts say that even the heaviest of textbooks typically weigh five pounds or less, within the standards set by the California commission. Textbook girth, they point out, is dictated by how much material a state mandates must be covered in a subject and how long a district wants a book to last. Softcover books weigh less but are less cost-effective because they wear out faster.
“I certainly don’t think kids should be dragging around huge weights on their back,” DiMarco said. “But the notion that books are the total problem here is very silly. It assumes that children only carry books in their backpacks.”
Indeed, books are only a part of what’s weighing down school backpacks these days. There also are soccer cleats and extra sweat pants, iPods and bulky liter-bottles of soda that students tote to school because more schools have banned vending machines.
Trotter said he was urged to draw up the bill by doctors concerned about the growing number of children suffering spinal column injuries, back pain and damaged posture. In 2002, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, nearly 29,000 youngsters under age 15 were treated in hospitals or doctors’ offices for injuries related to heavy backpacks.
“The long-term injuries these children are experiencing–it’s not even long term, it’s lifetime,” he said. “We’re talking about saving health-care costs down the road.”
Glenn “Max” McGee, superintendent of Wilmette District 39 and a former state superintendent, said student health should be a concern, but the quality of textbooks should be more important than weight.
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“I am all for keeping kids healthy, but when we look at textbooks or resource materials, we are looking for quality,” he said. “Sometimes they are thick, and sometimes they aren’t.”
Parent weighs in
Mary Lus Mendoza-Taylor, who has a daughter in the 7th grade at Melrose Park School, agrees that books seem too heavy, but she thinks legislators should focus on more fundamental education problems.
“How do they prioritize these issues that are going?” she asked. “Some of these schools are fighting for the basics, and [lawmakers are] not getting it.”
In Lake Forest, school Supt. Harry Griffith said he recognizes his students’ backpacks are too heavy.
“I do think it’s a problem,” said Griffith, as he watched a high-schooler dump a heavy backpack into the trunk of a car. “Unfortunately, this type of solution can have unintended consequences, like the elimination of a curriculum.”
Schools in Lake Forest have duplicate textbooks in classrooms so students don’t have to drag books home and back. That approach might be too expensive for less wealthy districts, but Griffith suggested that state officials come up with other solutions to the problem rather than mandate weight limits.
“To be that specific, to create a weight standard, is well intended but misguided,” Griffith said.
Glenbard’s Moss said Trotter’s bill could become a particularly burdensome issue for educators. And he wondered if standards would have to be made different for male and female students, various grade levels and even athletes and non-athletes.
“I think the concern is a good one,” he said, “but I’m not quite sure how we get a handle on it.”