MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2015 Regular Session
To: Education; Appropriations
By: Representative Gunn
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 37-43-1, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO AUTHORIZE THE USE OF COMPARABLE ALTERNATIVES TO BOUND PAPER TEXTBOOKS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND TO REQUIRE SCHOOLS TO MAKE COMPATIBLE LEARNING MATERIALS AVAILABLE TO STUDENTS AND PARENTS WHENEVER A TEXTBOOK ALTERNATIVE BEING USED IN A CLASS CANNOT BE USED OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM SETTING; TO AMEND SECTIONS 37-43-19, 37-43-23, 37-43-27, 37-43-31, 37-43-33, 37-43-37, 37-43-41, 37-43-43, 37-43-47, 37-43-51, 37-43-53 AND 37-43-59, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, IN CONFORMITY TO THE PROVISIONS OF THIS ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 37-43-1, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-1. (1) This chapter is intended to furnish a plan for the adoption, purchase, distribution, care and use of free bound paper textbooks and comparable alternatives to be loaned to the pupils in all elementary and high schools, other than charter schools, of Mississippi.
(2) The bound paper
books * * * and
comparable alternatives provided by the State Board of Education * * * shall be distributed and loaned free of cost to the
children of the free public school districts of the state and of all other
schools located in the state, which maintain educational standards equivalent
to the standards established by the State Department of Education for the state
schools as outlined in the Approval Requirements of the State Board of
Education for Nonpublic Schools.
(3) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, teachers shall permit all pupils in all grades of any public school in any school district to carry to their homes for home study, the free bound paper textbooks or comparable alternatives loaned to them, and any other regular textbooks, whether they be free bound paper textbooks or not. If a comparable alternative is being used in lieu of a bound paper textbook and it is not possible to provide the comparable alternative to a student or a student's parent outside of the classroom setting, such as with distance learning modules or online learning materials available only at the school, other compatible learning materials that correspond with the curriculum and learning objectives must be made available. If learning materials other than those being used during the school day for a particular course or class will be made available, the school or school district must provide, at the beginning of that course or class, written notice of the availability of the other learning materials to each student enrolled in the course or class and the students' parents.
(4) For the purposes of this chapter, the term "board" shall mean the State Board of Education.
(5) The term "textbook" * * *
means a
bound paper book or any other medium or manual of instruction which
contains a systematic presentation of the principles of a subject and which
constitutes a major instructional vehicle for that subject.
(6) In addition to the authority granted in this chapter, local school boards shall make available to the parents or legal guardians of any children of school age who reside in the school district administered by the school board, upon request, any textbooks on the state surplus inventory list. The parent or legal guardian is responsible for the return of the textbook(s) to the local school district upon completion of the textbook(s) use. Failure to return the textbook(s) to the school district will result in the parents or legal guardians being responsible for compensating the school district for the fair market value of the textbook(s).
SECTION 2. Section 37-43-19, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-19. The board shall have the power and is hereby authorized:
(a) To promulgate rules and regulations for the purchase, care, use, disposal, distribution and accounting for all bound paper books and comparable alternatives to be furnished under the terms of this chapter, and to promulgate such other rules and regulations as may be necessary for the proper administration of this chapter.
(b) To adopt, contract for, and make available for purchase, cash or credit, basal, supplementary or alternative textbooks or comparable alternatives through twelve (12) grades as provided in the school curriculum, or for any other course that it may add thereto.
(c) To determine the period of contract for rated and adopted textbooks, which shall not be for less than four (4) years nor more than five (5) years, with the right of the board, in its discretion, to renew or extend such contract from year to year for a period not exceeding two (2) additional years and to determine the conditions of the approval or forfeiture of a contract and such other terms and conditions as may be necessary and not contrary to law.
(d) To have complete power and authority over additions and amendments to textbooks, advertising for bids and the contents thereof, including comparable alternatives to bound paper textbooks, auxiliary materials and workbooks, advertising on the protective covers of textbooks, bids and proposals, prices of textbooks, specimen copies, cash deposits, selection and adoption, distribution, fumigation, emergencies, selling to others, return of deposits, forfeiture of deposits, regulations governing deposits, renovation and repair of books and comparable alternatives, requisition, transportation or shipment of books and comparable alternatives, and any other acts or regulations, not contrary to law, that may be deemed necessary for furnishing and loaning free textbooks or comparable alternatives to the school children, as provided in this chapter.
SECTION 3. Section 37-43-23, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-23. The State Board
of Education is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to advertise for and
receive sealed bids for textbooks and comparable alternatives to bound paper
books. Bidders shall quote their lowest net wholesale prices, f.o.b.
Central Depository, Jackson, Mississippi; however, the board may, in its
discretion, establish a state depository or depositories or inaugurate any
other plan for the distribution of bound paper books or comparable
alternatives. Such prices shall not be higher than the lowest price at
which books or comparable alternatives are sold anywhere in the United
States, after all discounts are allowed. It is the intent of the Legislature
that the price paid for a textbook, whether a bound paper book or a
comparable alternative, shall not exceed the lowest price at which the same * * *
item, both having the
same copyright date, is sold anywhere in the United States after all discounts
are allowed. Every contract entered into under the provisions of this section
by the board and any publisher or publishing company shall contain a provision
that the publisher covenants and agrees that he is not furnishing under
contract executed after the first day of January of the year in which the
contract becomes effective, to any state, county or school district in the
United States, the textbooks embraced in the contract at a price below the
price stipulated therein. At any time that the board may find that any book or
books, in either regular or special editions, or comparable alternatives
are being furnished in any other state at a lower price under contract than it
is being furnished in Mississippi, the contract shall be forfeited to the
state. Any contractor who violates this provision shall return all money paid
out for such book or books or comparable alternatives and also forfeit
such book or books or comparable alternatives to the state, and suit may
be brought on the bond of the contractor for all losses sustained.
Successful bidders or contractors shall be required to maintain a depository at a place within the State of Mississippi, to be named by the board, where a stock of bound paper books sufficient to meet all reasonable and immediate demands shall be kept. Upon requisition of the board, the depository shall ship books, transportation charges paid, to the various shipping points in Mississippi to be specified by the board. For such service the depository shall make no charge to the board except the actual cost of transportation from the depository to the shipping point designated. The cost of distribution shall not exceed eight percent (8%) of the total appropriation for any fiscal year.
All bound paper books furnished the State of Mississippi by contractors under this chapter shall continue to measure up to the same standards as are required in the contract, said standards to include printing, binding, cover boards, mechanical makeup, and any other relevant points as set out in the plans and specifications as fixed by the board. Any contractor of any bound paper book or books, who fails to keep said books up to said standards, shall forfeit, not only his contract to the state, but shall return all money paid out for such book or books and also forfeit said books to the state.
SECTION 4. Section 37-43-27, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-27. No bound paper
book or books or comparable alternatives shall be purchased from any
person, firm or corporation who is a member of, or connected with, any trust.
In the event that it is established that this provision has been violated, the
contract shall be forfeited and monies paid out under this contract shall be
returned to the state, and all books * * * or comparable alternatives
purchased under said contract shall be kept by the state or the public school
district which purchased the textbooks or comparable alternatives.
SECTION 5. Section 37-43-31, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-31. (1) The State Board of Education shall adopt and furnish textbooks only for use in those courses set up in the state course of study as recommended by the State Accreditation Commission and adopted by such board, or courses established by acts of the Legislature. In all subjects, the board, in its discretion, may adopt textbooks and/or series from those recommended by the textbook rating committees. The board may adopt a plan which permits the local school districts to choose the bound paper book or books or comparable alternatives to be requisitioned from those adopted, provided:
(a) That, when a book or
a comparable alternative is furnished by the state, it shall remain in use
during the period of * * * the textbook's adoption;
(b) That the average per pupil cost of textbooks or comparable alternatives, or both, so furnished any unit shall not exceed that allowed for all other units in the state;
(c) That nothing herein provided shall be construed as giving any school the authority to discard or replace usable copies of bound paper textbooks now being furnished by the state;
(d) That the State
Department of Education is authorized to disburse the annual textbook
appropriation directly to the public school districts in accordance with * * * paragraph
(b) of this subsection. The textbooks procured through this chapter * * *
which were previously purchased through the provisions of this statute, shall
become the property of the public school district which purchased them, unless
the State Department of Education authorizes the transfer of unneeded textbooks
to another location in accordance with rules and regulations promulgated by the
State Board of Education;
(e) That bound paper textbooks and comparable alternatives which are on loan to other than public schools as referenced in Section 37-43-1, shall remain the property of the State of Mississippi. All requisitions for textbooks from these schools shall be submitted to the State Department of Education to be processed and subsequently shipped to the requesting school. No funds shall be disbursed directly from the State Department of Education to the schools in this category for the purpose of procuring textbooks or comparable alternatives; and
(f) That funds made
available through this chapter may be used to purchase any state-adopted or * * * nonadopted textbook
from any state depository, directly from the publisher, or in accordance with
the provisions of Section 37-43-21(5) and * * * subsection (3) of
this section. For purchases made directly from the publisher, the public
school district, or the State Department of Education when purchasing for other
than public schools, shall not pay a higher price for a textbook or
comparable alternative than that listed on the current state-adopted list.
(2) Whenever any book or a comparable alternative under contract is displaced by a new adoption, the board may continue to require the schools to use the recently purchased bound paper books or a comparable alternative from any previous adoption; however, such period of use shall not exceed four (4) years.
(3) If five (5) or more school boards petition the State Board of Education to add a book, or a series of books, to the approved list of state adoptions in a given subject area, then the State Superintendent of Public Education shall have sixty (60) days to show cause to the State Board of Education why the books in question or a comparable alternative should or should not be purchased with state funds. If the petition is not acted upon within the sixty-day period, the petition shall be deemed to be approved. Once a textbook has been approved through the petition process, any public school district or eligible other school may procure the said textbook in bound paper form or a comparable alternative utilizing funds appropriated through this chapter.
(4) If new and innovative textbooks that would improve a particular course of study become available between adoption cycles, a school board may petition the State Board of Education for permission to purchase these books in bound paper form or a comparable alternative out of sequence, to be paid for with state textbook funds.
(5) The State Board of Education shall not allow previously rejected textbooks to be used if such textbooks were rejected for any of the following reasons:
(a) Obscene, lewd, sexist or vulgar material;
(b) Advocating prejudicial behavior or actions; or
(c) Encouraging acts
determined to be * * *
antisocial or derogatory to any race, sex or religion.
(6) All books or series of books adopted under the petition procedures of this chapter shall be purchased under the provisions for bidding, pricing and distribution as prescribed in Section 37-43-23.
(7) Petition procedure
books or series of books adopted under this section shall be considered only
until the date of the next regular adoption series in the applicable subject
area. Petition procedure books shall be submitted for formal adoption at the
next applicable regular textbook adoption as prescribed under the provisions of * * *
this chapter; otherwise, such books adopted under the
petition procedures which do not receive formal adoption approval as
recommended by the textbook rating committee shall be dropped from the state
textbook petition adoption list. * * * However, this provision shall in no
way prohibit a school district from using other funds, federal or local, for
the purchase of such books in bound paper form or a comparable alternative.
SECTION 6. Section 37-43-33, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-33. Any parent, person or school board in any community of the state may purchase bound paper books or a comparable alternative from the depository who is given authority to sell books and comparable alternatives under the provisions of this chapter. The price of the bound paper books and comparable alternatives so ordered or brought shall be the same as the contract price, plus whatever postage or delivery charges might accrue.
SECTION 7. Section 37-43-37, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-37. All bound paper books shall have a uniform label printed on the inside cover. Each school shall number all bound paper books, placing the number on said labels. All teachers shall keep an accurate record of the number and names of all bound paper books or comparable alternatives issued to each pupil.
SECTION 8. Section 37-43-41, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-41. The State Textbook Fund of Mississippi shall consist of the amounts appropriated by the Legislature for the same, all monies accruing from the sale of disused bound paper books and comparable alternatives from other than public schools, all monies derived from the purchase of bound paper books or comparable alternatives by both public and private schools trustees, and by private individuals, all monies collected in damage suits under the terms of this chapter, and all other monies collected in any way whatsoever under the terms of this chapter.
There is hereby created a special fund in the State Treasury to be designated as the "Local School District Textbook Carryover Fund." Said fund shall be credited with any funds which were appropriated by the Legislature to the State Textbook Fund for any fiscal year in which said funds were allocated to local school districts but unexpended by said districts. Said unexpended funds shall be deposited by the board into the Local School District Textbook Carryover Fund to the credit of the local school districts which were originally allocated such funds. All carryover funds which exist on June 30, 1994, which belong to public school districts shall be disbursed to the respective school districts. Carryover funds for other than public schools shall be handled in the same manner as previously described in this section.
SECTION 9. Section 37-43-43, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-43. The State Superintendent of Public Education shall deposit all funds sent to him from nonpublic schools for lost bound paper books or damaged books or comparable alternatives, as well as all other funds accruing under this chapter in the State Treasury to the credit of the State Textbook Fund.
SECTION 10. Section 37-43-47, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-47. Bills for bound paper textbooks or a comparable alternative purchased by the state on requisitions as provided in this chapter, and bills for all other expenses incurred under the terms of this chapter, shall be paid by warrants on the State Treasury made by the Auditor on receipt of bills from the State Superintendent of Public Education, and approved by the State Board of Education. Bills for bound paper textbooks or a comparable alternative purchased by public school districts, shall be submitted to the respective school district submitting the requisition. Each public school district will make payment to the appropriate entity which is responsible for providing the requested textbooks or comparable alternative.
SECTION 11. Section 37-43-51, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-51. The management of all public, private, parochial or denominational schools wherein the board is furnishing to the students thereof free school textbooks or comparable alternatives and said free school textbooks or comparable alternatives are used by the students in said school, shall file annually with the State Board of Education any and all reports as may be required by the board.
Any person who shall refuse, neglect or fail to file any report required by the board shall be denied a new allocation of funds until such reports have been completed and filed with the board.
SECTION 12. Section 37-43-53, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-53. The board is
hereby authorized, empowered and directed, in its discretion, to offer for
advertising purposes, the protective covers of the * * * bound paper free textbooks, to
accept bids, and to let contracts for said space. The contracts for said
advertising purposes shall be let for definite periods not to exceed two (2)
years.
It shall be the duty of the board, if it is desired that advertising shall be used, to approve all proposed advertising submitted for use on the covers of such free bound paper textbooks, and to accept only that advertising which will be in keeping with the spirit of the schools in promoting the children physically, mentally and morally. The board is hereby authorized, empowered and directed, in its discretion, to reject any and all bids submitted. No sectarian, un-American or immoral advertisements shall be accepted.
All * * * monies derived from sale of such
advertising shall be deposited in the State Treasury for the benefit of the
General Fund.
SECTION 13. Section 37-43-59, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
37-43-59. (1) Not more than one (1) pupil copy, one (1) teacher's edition, and one (1) copy of any limited auxiliary materials shall be furnished as samples or specimen copies to any single person involved in the state rating, adoption process of free textbooks. Any and all sample or specimen bound paper textbooks, comparable alternatives or other materials furnished to any person serving in an official capacity or as an officer or employee in a school receiving free textbooks shall be furnished only by the State Board of Education after receipt from the publishers. No samples shall be furnished by publishers directly to any such person. The board shall keep detailed records of all samples furnished to all persons and establish such procedures for return of all samples. The intent of this provision is that no person serving in an official capacity shall receive personal benefit or profit from sale of sample or specimen textbooks or comparable alternatives.
(2) Not more than one (1) pupil copy, one (1) teacher's edition, and one (1) copy of any limited auxiliary materials shall be furnished for review and inspection to any single person involved in the selection committee process of free textbooks. Any and all bound paper textbooks, comparable alternatives or other materials furnished to any such person serving in a selection committee capacity for inspection and review shall be furnished subject to the rules and regulations adopted by the board which such rules and regulations shall not prohibit direct delivery by the publishers to such persons. The board shall keep detailed records of all textbooks, comparable alternatives and auxiliary materials furnished to all such persons and establish such procedures for the return thereof. Any and all bound paper textbooks or comparable alternatives furnished to persons serving on selection committees shall be turned in to the State School Book Depository without any cost to the State of Mississippi and shall be credited to the account of the publisher. Any and all textbooks or comparable alternatives so furnished to persons serving on selection committees which have not been returned within one (1) year of the receipt of same the value thereof shall be charged against the allocation of state funds to said school district to the same extent as if said books or comparable alternatives had been purchased by said school district. The intent of this provision is that no person serving as a selection committee member shall receive personal benefit or proceeds from the sale of said textbooks or comparable alternatives.
(3) The State School Book Depository shall pay into the State Treasury to the credit of the State Textbook Fund the net wholesale price less an eight percent (8%) distribution cost and freight charges of those adopted bound paper textbooks and comparable alternatives which are returned by the rating committees as required herein. The board shall also provide for the sale of damaged bound paper books or comparable alternatives and those textbooks not adopted into the secondary textbook market on an annual basis. The State School Book Depository shall pay into the State Treasury to the credit of the State Textbook Fund the amount received for which said textbooks or comparable alternatives are sold less an eight percent (8%) distribution cost and freight charges of said textbooks and comparable alternatives which are damaged or not adopted.
(4) Any person converting to personal use or selling any sample or specimen bound paper textbook, comparable alternative or other materials contrary to provisions of this section shall be guilty of the crime of embezzlement as provided by Section 97-11-25, and in addition shall, upon conviction, pay a fine of Fifty Dollars ($50.00) per book or comparable alternative sold or converted to personal use and shall be removed from any public office or public employment position held.
SECTION 14. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2015.