Loads and loads of textbooks are received by Assistant Principal Mr. Gutierrez by the library gate. Meanwhile, in the textbook room lay hundreds of unopened and unused textbooks.

Schools are wasting money on textbooks.

According to some Bell High Students, most of the textbooks they check out are never used. Technology has revolutionized everything, from working remotely at home to changing the way students and teachers learn, think, and communicate, so why waste money on textbooks when the internet has the answers to everything?

“Textbooks are a waste of the school budget and space,” senior Monica Alcala said. “The school should use the money on something else.”

This school year,  thousands of dollars was wasted on textbooks at Bell High with the math textbook being the most expensive at one hundred and twenty dollars.

Many students agree that textbooks are “useless” due to the fact that everything is digital now. On the other hand Chemistry Teacher Mr. Moses shares that he doesn’t want his students “staring at a screen one hundred percent of the time.”

“We spend a lot of money on textbooks and think we should use them,” Mr Moses said.  “Students are able to get good information from textbooks.”

Juniors Lily Mendoza and Jennifer Herrera, share that they have never used the school textbooks. Senior Ariel Velasco shared that he has only used textbooks in AP classes. “I prefer digital because using textbooks comes with risks of losing and paying for textbooks,” Ariel said.

“I feel like textbooks should just be kept in classrooms,” said junior Andrea Cisneros. “That way we don’t have to bring them  on the rare occasion that we do use them.” 

Mr. Gutierrez explained that schools need to buy textbooks because of a law known as the William Textbook Law. He also shared that the district is in incharge of buying school textbooks based on enrollment.  

Though not all textbooks are used, it is important to keep in mind that not every school in the world has a privilege to buy textbooks. So students should take care of them as long as we have them, because with fewer damaged textbooks, fewer textbooks will be purchased and less money will go to waste.