Public Schools doing away with books?

My mom recently emailed me a copy of this article from the Tupelo, MS Public School District's website. They were praising the fact that by the end of this semester all children and teachers in grades 6-12 will have personal computers. Now instead of giving each child a text book to read during the year (which I have issues with anyway...) they will get a diluted form sent to them via email from their teacher.

The project will be largely paid for by money the district normally spends on textbooks and photocopies, Shaver said. Instead of providing textbooks for each of its students, the district will now just have a set of textbooks for each subject and classroom. Teachers creating handouts for students will now make those handouts into electronic documents, or PDFs, and email them to students.

I take serious issue with this. Why not let the children read for themselves? Why not let them make their own inferences and have their own opinions? I just don't see the benefit of having a personal computer in exchange for a book. Albeit, textbooks are horrible ways to teach anyway...but at least it's better than a teacher handout. Oh, let's add this article to the list of reasons that I choose to school my children in our home. Now, I'm signing off of this computer to go and read an actual book! Goodnight!