Quote:
Originally Posted by WT Sharpe
And as Texas is the largest single-buyer of textbooks, as goes Texas, so goes the nation.
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It's debatable whether Texas or California is largest; they're close enough that it may vary by year. Apparently Florida's third. (No idea why NY isn't third; maybe its population skews more adult?) But TX and CA are definitely the two big ones that publishers are concerned with pleasing. However, California's *utterly broke* right now, has no money, and isn't actively influencing the textbook market at the moment.
Note to people in other countries: this isn't a matter of laws inflicted on publishers; it's a matter of states considering their community values, and only agreeing to purchase educational materials that their communities feel is appropriate. The problem is that the "communities" in question are HUGE; CA is over 36 million people; TX is over 24 million.
I believe several, maybe most, US states have these kinds of guidelines... but most keep them in line with CA or TX's rules, as a matter of practicality. Publishers looking at those 70 million people for marketing aren't going to consider conflicting rules for small markets. If Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, North & South Dakota--states physically near each other--got together and made a set of combined guidelines for textbooks (perhaps requiring a focus on the international politics, as they're near Canada, or mentioning the importance of homesteading and cattle ranching)... they'd be ignored. Together, those five states have less than 5 million people. If they make rules about what books they won't carry that don't fit what's being sold in CA and TX, publishers just won't bother selling to them. Publishers won't re-write books to appeal to small markets.