Textbooks are Too Expensive ...

... even for schools. In North Carolina, school districts forced to choose between two budget priorities - teachers jobs and textbooks - are choosing jobs. This story really highlights the need for some alternatives, including inexpensive e-books, wiki-books, open courseware, and open books.
Textbooks are barely hanging on as cuts loom:

Michele Powell considers her students' environmental science textbooks a critical instructional resource, but the books' condition leaves much to be desired.
Some are being held together by tape while others are missing pages. One student had to pair up with a classmate last week because his book didn't have the pages being covered in Powell's lesson.