By Culberson                                           H.B. No. 697
       74R2625 KKA-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to textbooks used in the public schools.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Section 11.273, Education Code, is amended by
    1-5  adding Subsection (i) to read as follows:
    1-6        (i)  The commissioner of education shall approve an
    1-7  application of a school district or campus for a waiver for
    1-8  textbook selection unless good cause exists to deny the
    1-9  application.
   1-10        SECTION 2.  Subchapter B, Chapter 12, Education Code, is
   1-11  amended by adding Section 12.37 to read as follows:
   1-12        Sec. 12.37.  LIABILITY FOR FACTUAL ERRORS.  (a)  A textbook
   1-13  publisher is liable to the state in an amount equal to three times
   1-14  the state's actual damages resulting from a factual error that is:
   1-15              (1)  contained in a textbook that has been purchased
   1-16  with state funds; and
   1-17              (2)  discovered after delivery of the textbook.
   1-18        (b)  For the recovery of damages authorized under Subsection
   1-19  (a), the attorney general, the commissioner of education, or
   1-20  another interested person may bring suit in Travis County against
   1-21  the publisher of the textbook.
   1-22        (c)  Actual damages in a suit brought under this section are
   1-23  at least the amount paid by the state for all necessary shipments
   1-24  of the textbook, including shipment to each school district or
    2-1  campus that requested the textbook and any additional shipment
    2-2  required as a result of the error contained in the textbook.
    2-3        SECTION 3.  This Act applies only to a textbook delivered to
    2-4  a depository on or after the effective date of this Act.
    2-5        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
    2-6  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
    2-7  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    2-8  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    2-9  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   2-10  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   2-11  passage, and it is so enacted.