The state of California may have too short a school year and a school day, and doesn’t spend near enough on our kids. (More money is going to retiree benefits). But it isn’t all bad
My favorite part of being a public school parent is the online resources.
Some are available through school districts. In my kids’ district, we have access to a wealth of online resources and lessons, including foreign language lessons that I use.
Now there’s even more. Our State Library, under the leadership of journalist-made-good Greg Lucas, is offering three online databases to schools, districts and students — at no cost! The databases are available at school, at home, on your phone, wherever.
This is reliable content. The first, database, Encyclopedia Britannica, you’ve probably heard of. It is now available to California kids in English and Spanish.
The others are ProQuest,’essentially an online library for research, which includes everything from historical archives to scientific journals and data—and TeachingBook.net, which provides author interviews, vocabulary lists and other material to supplement books you might be reading, in school or out.
In a press release, the State Library notes that this costs $3 million—a small amount. And that the key person in the governor’s office was the late Nancy McFadden, who greenlighted. This is a small but powerful piece of her legacy.