By Culberson                                           H.B. No. 696
       74R2163 KKA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to a waiver from statutes and rules for a school district
    1-3  or campus regarding textbook selection.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 11.273(f), Education Code, is amended to
    1-6  read as follows:
    1-7        (f)  A school district or campus that receives a waiver under
    1-8  this section for textbook selection may select for purchase a
    1-9  textbook not on a state-adopted multiple list.  The textbook shall
   1-10  be purchased by the district and shall be used for the same number
   1-11  of years for which the textbooks for the subject or course are
   1-12  adopted by the State Board of Education.  The unit cost of the
   1-13  textbooks selected shall not exceed the unit cost of the costliest
   1-14  textbook on the multiple list for the subject or course.  The
   1-15  commissioner of education shall calculate the allowable cost and
   1-16  transmit from the state textbook fund that amount to the district
   1-17  for purchase of the textbooks.  The State Board of Education and
   1-18  the commissioner of education may not <shall> adopt rules
   1-19  restricting <necessary for> the implementation of this subsection.
   1-20        SECTION 2.  This Act applies beginning with the 1995-1996
   1-21  school year.
   1-22        SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-23  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-24  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
    2-3  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
    2-4  passage, and it is so enacted.