There has always been a traditional bias in the learning materials used in schools. Due to a growing awareness of this bias, educators have become sensitive to the need for change in curricular materials. The trend in textbook publication has been to pretend that discrimination no longer exists in the United States. The extensive textbook portrayal of minority individuals in non-traditional roles seemingly supports arguments that minorities as a whole are enjoying greater prosperity and happiness than ever before. Publishers must please educators from a few powerful states that use adoption procedures of textbook assignment and constitute a large share of the marketplace. Deviation from states' wishes is financially unsound for publishers, therefore, textbook writers must conform to standards imposed upon them by others. Although small publishers sometimes risk producing textbooks that place quality over salability, their impact is limited by meager funds for sales campaigns and state regulations governing educator contact with authors. Economics books lack material about black and Hispanic unemployment and the issue of illegal immigration. Most social studies texts do not discuss the realities of poverty and racism. Ethnic conflict is being ignored in U.S. history books, tearing students between textbook ideals and the real-life existence of discrimination. These problems might be solved with the establishment of a national mediation board that would delineate the qualities of good textbooks, determine acceptable subjects for publication, and unite educators, writers, and adoption committees to agree on the most usable, profitable, and acceptable curricular materials. (GEA)