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.