Documents Show Spending On Scrapped Curriculum

BALTIMORE (AP) -- School system documents show that Baltimore County has spent more than $5 million over the past few years on textbooks and a curriculum overhaul despite warnings from state officials.

The documents, obtained by The Baltimore Sun, show that about $2.2 million was spent on an outdated grammar textbook that is barely used by students. The school system also paid teachers to work on the overhaul and purchased other English books.

The reworking of the language arts program and a new linguistics curriculum to supplement it began in 2009 and continued through last year. The changes were made despite warnings that Maryland was about to change what should be taught in English.

Superintendent Joe A. Hairston says the school district is redoing its language arts curriculum for a second time.
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