I have complained to the NSF many times about their treatment of the
development of new materials for education. The NSF puts up a lot of money
to help someone develop new materials, then they (NSF) abandon ship and
leave the individual to produce these materials for commercial sale. The
individual often has such limited financial resources that a small batch of
materials is produced. As everyone knows, if a large number of objects are
produced, the cost can be amortized over this larger number and the unit
cost can be reduced to a few dollars. I can buy a ten million dollar
production cost movie on videotape for $9.95 at K-mart, but a decent video
or laserdisk for my students costs $100. As a result, only the wealthy
school districts can afford the better materials. It is time for the NSF to
take a closer look at the materials they are asked to help develop. If they
decide to develop some material, it should be taken through a production
run large enough that every school can afford to purchase it.