Newcastle Superintendent Gordon Grubbs admits the awful truth: He has a book room full of books that will never see the light of day. “It’s sad,” he said. “It’s sad.”

But he’s cheering on a new bill that will prevent such waste — and allow him to use his book money to buy what he really wants for his district’s 170 students.

Kindles.

The wireless reading devices are now as thin as a magazine and lighter than a paperback. They’ll hold 1,200 adult-sized books and can be switched to audio format, where the book reads to you.

Grubbs also has his eye on other text-to-speech technology that will help novice readers.

All such cutting-edge technology may now be within his reach because of House Bill 4294, a bill that sailed through the Texas Legislature and was applauded by Republicans, Democrats, teacher organizations, administrators and business groups.

It will allow local school districts, large and small, to have some flexibility in spending their textbook money for a wider range of innovative, cutting-edge, state-approved instructional materials — and to buy the technology it will take to put them in the classroom.

“My greatest concern is that our teachers have accurate, relevant, current data to use to teach our kids. Some of our textbooks — we get them, and we’re still using them 10 years later. This bill gives us an opportunity to buy electronic textbooks with updates that we could update nearly every year,” Grubbs said.

Some teachers barely use textbooks at all anymore, Grubbs said. A math textbook filled with “drill and kill” repetitive problems isn’t useful anymore, he said. “There has to be critical thinking elements in nearly everything our kids do nowadays.”

Both Sen. Craig Estes, R-Wichita Falls, and Rep. David Farabee, D-Wichita Falls, supported the bill after hearing universal support for it from educators and business groups.

“It is a long and laborious process we go through to get textbooks approved and into the hands of students and teachers,” said Lewis Simmons, chief of staff for Estes’ office. “Sometimes that information is out of date by the time we do it that way. I think this bill attempts to allow the local school district to better utilize modern technology and perhaps even save money.”

Luke Bellsnsyder, executive director of the Texas Association of Manufacturers, supported the bill that he said would bring classrooms into the 21st century. “Our curriculum and materials ought to reflect the realities of today’s work force,” he said.

Farabee said he was confident that instructional personnel had a large part in developing the bill’s broad parameters. “The fine details will now be put in place through the Texas Education Agency,” he said. “Those have not yet been done and aren’t done until long into the summer following a legislative session. It will be interesting to see the implementation.”

A teacher like Sherri Burns, who will teach fourth-grade reading at Ben Franklin Elementary School, said she’d direct such money into technology that would help dyslexic children and those who learn in unconventional ways. She’s currently teaching summer school, helping children who don’t like reading. “I’d want anything to get them interested, to see that it’s an escape or pure entertainment, or that they can find things easier — I’m all over that.”

Even she often prefers technology to books, she said. “When it’s time to learn something new, I move straight to the computer.”

Grubbs said he hopes the bill will allow him to purchase more laptops for his students.

“I believe this bill will provide the latest and best information for (students), in a format that they love and respond to, and it’s also financially better.”

If signed by Gov. Rick Perry, the bill will take effect Sept. 1.