The Funky Things We Find In Laws

How anyone can write, read, and understand laws as they are currently written, I do not understand. Here's an education bill currently working it's way to Governor Schwarzenegger's desk. It takes me 11 "page down" clicks just to get through the legislative counsel's so-called digest!

Here's something interesting in the bill:

SEC. 28. Section 60200.7 is added to the Education Code, to read:

60200.7. Notwithstanding Sections 60200 and 60200.1, the state board shall not adopt instructional materials or follow the procedures adopted pursuant to Sections 60200 and 60200.1 until the 2013-14 school year.

I've read elsewhere that as a result, the government has cut over $700K from the Department of Education, money that was to have been spent on new frameworks and instructional materials adoptions. To be honest, I'm kinda happy with the math standards and fear that any tinkering would result in their being watered down.

If I read the above correctly, we're stuck with the currently-adopted materials for the next 5 years. That's not necessarily bad, but we *will* need to replace some of the textbooks in that time. I hope there's still money available to replace excessively-worn textbooks.

But let's go back to the citation above. What's in Section 60200? Here are the first couple of paragraphs:

60200. The state board shall adopt basic instructional materials for use in kindergarten and grades 1 to 8, inclusive, for governing boards, subject to the following provisions:
(a) The state board shall adopt at least five basic instructional materials for all applicable grade levels in each of the following categories:
(1) Language arts, including, but not limited to, spelling and reading. However, the state board may not adopt basic instructional materials in this category or the category specified by paragraph (2) in the year succeeding the year in which the state board adopts basic instructional materials in this category for the same grade level.
(2) Mathematics. However, the state board may not adopt basic instructional materials in this category or the category specified by paragraph (1) in the year succeeding the year in which the state board adopts basic instructional materials in this category for the same grade level.

I'll be honest here--I'm not sure what that means. Does it mean the state cannot adopt "basic instructional materials" in math two years in a row? If that's what it means, why not say it clearly? Is there a legitimate reason our laws must be written in such obtuse language?

I'm sure there are plenty of other interesting law changes in the above-linked AB X4 2, but I don't have the patience to wade through all that muck to find them.

Update, 8/8/09: The LA Times has a story on the postponement of textbook purchases.