By: Carona H.B. No. 3
73R629 SHS-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to public school textbooks.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Section 12.01(a), Education Code, is amended to
1-5 read as follows:
1-6 (a) Textbooks adopted by the State Board of Education for
1-7 use in the public schools of Texas and those alternative textbooks
1-8 selected by school districts under Section 12.62(b) of this chapter
1-9 shall be furnished, under the plan as set out in this chapter,
1-10 without cost to the pupils attending such schools.
1-11 SECTION 2. Section 12.61, Education Code, is amended by
1-12 adding Subsection (j) to read as follows:
1-13 (j) The State Board of Education shall adopt rules necessary
1-14 to provide school districts with textbooks selected from a source
1-15 other than a multiple list, including rules requiring the district
1-16 to give timely notice of which books have been selected and the
1-17 number of those books needed for the succeeding school year.
1-18 SECTION 3. Section 12.62, Education Code, is amended by
1-19 amending Subsections (b) and (c) and adding Subsection (h) to read
1-20 as follows:
1-21 (b) In each subject of the elementary and high school
1-22 grades, one or more of the several textbooks on <of> each multiple
1-23 list adopted may be selected by local school officials; but all of
1-24 the schools in any one district, or all districts under the
2-1 supervision of any one county school system (county school board
2-2 and/or superintendent) must select the same book or books for all
2-3 of the schools within the system. As alternatives to the textbooks
2-4 on a multiple list, a school district may select other textbooks if
2-5 the publisher supplies evidence that the textbooks include material
2-6 on the elements of the subject matter or course designated as
2-7 essential by State Board of Education rule. Before selecting
2-8 textbooks, the local school officials must hold a public hearing on
2-9 textbook selection.
2-10 (c) Once textbooks are selected from the multiple lists or
2-11 from other sources, they shall be continued in use in that school
2-12 system for the entire period of the state adoption cycle.
2-13 (h) Except as provided by this subsection, a textbook
2-14 selected under this section that is not on a multiple list shall be
2-15 purchased by the state in the same manner as a textbook selected
2-16 from a multiple list. If the cost of the textbook exceeds the cost
2-17 of each textbook on the multiple list for the same subject matter
2-18 or course, the district shall pay the difference in costs from
2-19 local funds.
2-20 SECTION 4. This Act applies to textbooks adopted for the
2-21 1993-1994 school year and thereafter.
2-22 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
2-23 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
2-24 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
2-25 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
2-26 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
2-27 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-1 passage, and it is so enacted.